The Duke of Argyll says:—“We know nothing of the ultimate seat of force. Science, in the modern doctrine of conservation of energy, and the convertibility of forces, is already getting something like a firm hold of the idea that all kinds of forces are but forms or manifestations of some one central force, issuing from some one fountain-head of power.” It is Keely’s province to prove to materialists—to the world—that this one fountain-head is none other than the Omnipotent and all-pervading Will-Force of the Almighty, “which upholds, guides, and governs, not only our world, but the entire universe. This important truth is destined to shiver the tottering fabric of materialism into fragments at no distant day.”
Professor George Bush writes:—“The progress of scientific research, at the present day, has distinguished itself not less by the wideness of the field over which its triumphs have spread, than by the soundness and certainty of the inductions by which it is sustained. It is equally indisputable that we are approximating the true philosophy which underlies the enlarged and enlarging spiritual experiences and phenomena of the current age. That this philosophy, when reached, will conduct us into the realm of the spiritual as the true region of causes, and disclose new and unthought-of relations between the world of matter and of mind, is doubtless a very reasonable anticipation, and one that even now is widely, though vaguely, entertained.”
The Egyptians worshipped Ra, their name for the sun, and Ammon, the emblem of a mysterious power concealed from human perception. The Supreme Being is the grand central spiritual sun, the source and centre of all life, “whose revelation is traced in imperishable figures of universal harmony on the face of Cosmos.” “The outward visible world is but the clothing of the invisible,” wrote Coleridge. “The whole world process, in its content,” says von Hartmann, “is only a logical process; but in its existence a continued act of will.” Lilly continues, “That is what physical law means. Reason and Will are inseparably united in the universe, as they are in idea. If we will anything, it is for some reason. In contemplating the structure of the universe, we cannot resist the conclusion that the whole is founded upon a distinct idea.”
Keely demonstrates the harmony of this “distinct idea” throughout creation, and shows us that “the sun is the visible effluence and agent, earthward, of the Being without whose prior design and decree there would be no order and no systematic rule on earth,” as well as that in “the universal ether” we find the link between mind and matter. “There is more of heaven than of earth, in all terrestrial things; more of spirit than of matter in what are termed material laws.” Lange, with prophetic tongue, says that this age of materialism may prove to be but the stillness before the storm which bursts from unknown gulfs to give a new shape to the world. Inch by inch, step by step, physical science has marched towards its desired goal—the verge of physical nature, says Alcott. When it was thought that the verge was reached, that the mysteries which lay beyond were for ever barred to mortals by the iron gate of death, then the discoveries of Faraday, Edison, and Crookes pushed further away the chasm which separates the confessedly knowable from the fancied unknowable, and whole domains previously undreamt of were suddenly exposed to view. Not long since, Canon Wilberforce asked Keely what would become of his discovery and his inventions in case of his death before they became of commercial value to the public. Keely replied that he had written thousands of pages, which he hoped would, in such an event, be mastered by some mind capable of pursuing his researches to practical ends; but in the opinion of the writer, there is no man living who is fitted for this work.
Diogenes of Apollonia identified the reason that regulated the world with the original substance, air. Keely teaches that “the original substance” is ether, not air; and that the world is regulated through this ether by its Creator. There are many molecules which contain no air—not one molecule that does not contain the one true “original substance,” ether.
Up to 1888 Keely was still pursuing the wrong line of research, still trying to construct an engine which could hold the ether in “a rotating circle of etheric force;” still ignorant of the impossibility of ever reaching commercial success on that line. It was the end of the year before he could be brought to entirely abandon his “perfect engine;” and to confine himself to researches, which he had been pursuing in connection with his repeated failures on the commercial line, to gain more knowledge of the laws which govern the operation of the force that, like a “Will-o’-the-wisp,” seemed to delight in leading him astray.
Up to this time his researching devices had been principally of his own construction; but from the time that he devoted himself to the line of research, marked out for him to follow, he was supplied with the best instruments that opticians could make for him after the models or designs which he furnished. If, from 1882 to 1888, he walked with giant strides along the borders of the domain that he had entered, from 1888 to the present time he has made the same progress beyond its borders. From the hour in which he grasped “the key to the problem,” the “principle underlying all,” the dawn of “a new order of things,” broke upon his vision, and he was no longer left at the mercy of the genii whom he had aroused.
In July, 1888, the T.P.S. published the succeeding paper, which had a wide circulation.