The Universe a Vast Electric Organism

by Geo. W. Warder

The molecules are composed of invisible magnets called atoms. This electric attraction acts continuously. Were it to stop its action for a second, solid bodies would instantly crumble to invisible atoms, our material forms would vanish into thin air, and the universe disappear in viewless ether.

The electro-magnetic force holds firmly the molecules of solid bodies and gives them their strength and solidity. It is more feeble in its cohesive grasp on liquid bodies and is very feeble in gaseous bodies. Molecules are in a ceaseless state of activity and motion, forever vibrating to the touch of electric energy.

The ever-restless and varying motions of the invisible molecules constituting all matter is like a cluster of bees at their hive, or of ants at their nests, hurrying and scrambling over and around each other in constant and curious motions. And if our eyes were powerful enough to see the molecules of which a block of wood or a human body is composed, they would witness such a scene of activity as the crowded bees and ants exhibit, only still more curious and constant. When water is changed into steam it goes into the air as widely separated and invisible particles which disappear entirely, but every particle is still in existence and may be converted again into water. When wood is burned, it changes into ashes, smoke and vapor. Not a single particle is ever destroyed. It is so with our bodies, they dissolve into their natural elements, which pass into tree and shrub and air and water and other bodies; they never return to their organic form. There is no resurrection of the physical body. What goes down into the grave never comes forth again. The spirit-body never enters the grave, but soars to the celestial cities of the sun in a new and endless life. Nature and Deity would not do so nugatory a thing as to resurrect three or four bucketsful of water and a handful of bonedust. Fresher and better material is at hand in abundance all the time.

There are bodies all around us so small that we cannot see them. They are in the air we breathe and in the water we drink. Some of them are alive and some are not. Many of them are so small we need the most powerful microscope to detect their presence. Yet every one is made up of parts much smaller than itself. The fine dust which clings to our fingers when we hold a butterfly or a moth, scarce visible to the naked eye, is found under the microscope to be made up of a thousand or more still smaller particles.

There are living creatures so small it would take a million of them to equal the size of a mustard seed. Millions of them float unseen in the air around us, and swim in the drops of water we drink. Millions more float through the blood in our veins, which to them are vast, surging seas of life. They are so very small, a thousand of them might fly side by side through the eye of a needle. Yet each little creature must be made of still smaller parts, else they could not move or devour their food; they are too infinitesimal for the grasp of our imagination.

If we keep on dividing a body into smaller and smaller pieces, we at last get a piece so very small it cannot be divided again without changing into some other kind of matter. These smaller pieces are called molecules, which are particles of matter which cannot be divided without changing their nature. All bodies are porous and have spaces between their molecules. This was proven of gold a long time ago at Florence, where a hollow globe of gold was filled with water and shut up tight, then put under immense pressure. The water was forced by the pressure through the pores of the gold as a fine dewy moisture or perspiration. The same result would have occurred had it been iron, copper or any other metal, as there is a space between all molecules in all bodies.

All molecules in all bodies revolve around each other without touching. You can stand a man before the Crookes tube or Roentgen rays and look through him and take pictures of his bones, and look through his bones and take pictures of objects on the other side of them, and also look through four-foot walls. And photographs are now taken through six-inch brick walls.

All spaces between the molecules of all visible substances, all pores and cavities in all organic bodies and inorganic matter, including the earth, and all animal and vegetable life is, I contend, permeated and occupied by invisible electro-magnetic ether. This ether is the life-giving and life-preservative force and essence of the universe and that from which all things have been evolved. All suns and worlds and all their complex creations and everything that exists floats in this boundless, vibrating sea of magnetic ether. And there are vast and mighty currents of electric force and power reaching from every sun and planet to every other sun and planet in the universe. These are enduring bands of strength, invisible ligaments of magnetic power that bind the universe together as one complete, harmonious electric organism. They constitute the unity and strength of all creation and promulgate and enforce the laws of nature.

They are vast highways of space, the boulevards of the universe. We cannot see them, neither can we see elemental matter, or electricity, or life, but we know they exist, and are the foundations of the universe.

Human spirits, at death, when they drop their visible vesture of atoms, can step onto this electric tide, this current of swift-speeding light and power, and in eight minutes or less time enter the heaven of their dreams in the celestial cities of the sun.