“Granted,” interposed Hitt. “Yet, the doctor is giving the very latest deductions of the great scientists.”
“But, Doctor,” said Father Waite, “the scientists tell us that they have experimental evidence in support of the theories which you have stated regarding the composition of matter. Electricity has been proven granular, or atomic, in structure. And every electrical charge consists of an exact number of electrical atoms spread out over the surface of the charged body. All this admits of definite calculation.”
“Admitted,” said Hitt, taking up the challenge. “And their very calculations and deductions are rapidly wearing away the ‘materialistic theory’ of matter. You will admit that mathematics is wholly confined to the realm of mind. It is a strictly mental science, in no way material. It loses definiteness when ‘practically’ applied to material objects. Kant saw this, and declared that a science might be regarded as further removed from or nearer to perfection in proportion to the amount of mathematics it contained. Now there has been an astonishing confirmation of this great truth just lately. At a banquet given in honor of the discoverer of wireless telegraphy it was stated that the laws governing the traversing of space by the invisible electric waves were more exact than the general laws of physics, where very complex formulas and coefficients are required for correcting the general laws, due to surrounding material conditions. The greater exactness of laws governing the invisible electric waves was said to be due to the absence of matter. And it was further stated that whenever matter had to be taken into consideration there could be no exact law of action!” “Which shows––?”
“That matter admits of no definite laws,” replied Hitt. “That there are no real laws of matter. And that definiteness is attained only as we dematerialize matter itself.”
“In other words, get into the realm of the mental?”
“Just so. And now for the application. I have said that we do not receive any testimony whatsoever through the so-called material senses, but that we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell our own thoughts––that is, the thoughts which, from some source, come into our mentalities. Very well, our scientists show us that, as they get farther away from dense material thoughts, and deal more and more with those which have less material structure, less material composition, their laws become more definite, more exact. Following this out to its ultimate conclusion, we may say, then, that only those laws which have to do with the non-material are perfect.”
“And those,” said Carmen, “are the laws of mind.”
“Exactly! And now the history of physical science shows that there has been a constant deviation from the old so-called fixed ‘laws of matter.’ The law of impenetrability has had to go. A great physicist tells us that, when dealing with sufficiently high speeds, matter has no such property as impenetrability. Mass is a function of velocity. The law of indestructibility has had to go. Matter deteriorates and goes to pieces. The material elements are not fixed. The decided tendency of belief is toward a single element, of which all matter is composed, and of which the eighty-odd constituent elements of matter accepted to-day are but modifications. That unit element may be the ether, of course. And the great Russian chemist, Mendeleef, so believed. But to us, the ether is a mental thing, a theory. But, granting its existence, its universal penetrability renders matter, as we know it, non-existent. Everything reduces to the ether, in the final analysis. And all energy becomes vibrations in and of the ether.”
“And the ether,” supplemented the doctor, “has to be without mass, invisible, tasteless, intangible, much more rigid than steel, and at the same time some six hundred billion times lighter than air, in order to fulfill all the requirements made of it and to meet all conditions.”