1912. But the use of the term force, as applied either to the ether appropriate to this mundane sphere, or to that which belongs more especially to the spirit world, seems to me erroneous. Imponderable fluids may be instrumental to forces, but, per se, cannot have force. No imponderable material fluid can per se have any force, unless that of the reciprocal repulsion of particles, which causes their equable diffusion and resistance to condensation. Electricity has less force in proportion as it is more isolated. In vacuo it passes more diffusely and with less noise in proportion as the vacuum is more perfect. The violence of electrical phenomena is always dependent upon the reaction of the ponderable masses upon or between which it acts. In proportion as the matter on which it operates is more favourable to its condensation therein, or thereupon, the more violent is the deflagration or explosion which results. But in all the phenomena which have hitherto been recognised as the objects of strict physical examination, vis inertiæ has been indispensable to the exhibition of force. “Give me but where to stand, and I will move the world,” was the exclamation of Archimedes; but the conviction thus expressed, of the necessity of a resisting basis, is universally recognised. In other words, there can be no action without reaction, whether chemical, mechanical, or muscular force be applied. Of course, it is preposterous to speak of an isolated imponderable physical fluid, as possessing force per se. When left to itself it would remain inert, like any other inanimate matter. Clearly, isolated action on the part of such a fluid cannot be shown in any case whatever.
1913. Reichenbach alleged the substance or principle to which the name odic has been given to be visible, but he did not adduce any instance of its acting as a moving power so as to justify its being designated as the odic force.
1914. It is, however, unnecessary that those who admit the existence of an invisible ethereal medium through which, without muscular contact, or agency, effects are produced by will, should concur in their opinions respecting the nature of that imponderable principle. The question between those agreeing in the preceding principles, is whether it is to the will of mortals or to the will of disembodied spirits that such manifestations are to be attributed. I should think that no person who shall have read the communications which I have introduced into this work, as coming from my spirit friends, can ascribe those communications to the medium and myself. They must either suppose that there is a wilful manufacture of the wonderful and interesting information therein contained, setting aside the test conditions, through which they are sanctioned, as unreliable; or they must ascribe a wonderful fertility to the minds of the media and myself, through whom they have been obtained.
1915. So far from the ideas being obtained from my mind, which proceed from my spirit father, that he and I cannot come to one opinion on some points after much discussion. My father and sister have, by reiterated communication, as well established a conviction on my mind of their being that which they allege themselves to be, as if a correspondence had been carried on with them for the same space of time, say eighteen months, while they should be residing in another part of the country.
1916. But the whole superstructure built up by the most confident among the recent assailants of Spiritualism, Mahan, rests on the error already exposed in the case of its commission by Dr. Bell.
1917. It is assumed that spirits can never tell any ideas which do not exist in the minds of some persons present. Who was present when my spirit messenger conveyed to Mrs. Gourlay the request to send her husband to bank to inquire when a note would be due? Again, when cards were selected without the denomination having been seen by any mortal present, how could the denomination of the cards be spelt out upon the alphabetic disk?
1918. In his work, Mr. Mahan assumes that the odic force is identical with that which is the immediate cause of the spirit manifestations. Agreeably to the considerations above presented, no imponderable material principle, such as the ether of the undulation theory is supposed to be, can be a force. The only part which it can perform is that of being a medium of force. The fluid of electricity was never assumed to be a moving power, neither according to the Franklinian hypothesis of one fluid, nor that of two fluids, according to Dufay. Without chemical or mechanical disturbance, they would be as still as the water in a pond during a perfect calm.
1919. There is evidently, however, in nature, an imponderable cause of motion, and of other changes, more complicate than simple motion, and, I believe, only one such cause, and that is mind. No one who attributes the creation to the mind of the Creator, but must admit that the mind of the Creator and Ruler of the universe is the moving power of the universe. It must also be admitted that the mind of man, as a moving power, is very minute in comparison with that of its Author, or Source, but still resembling it so far as it reasons, and obeys the dictates of that reason, and causes matter to move in consequence of its designs, desires, wishes, or emotions.
1920. But if this will of the Creator exists, it must have some medium through which it reaches the objects which it influences, just as the ether of the undulationist is necessary to the transmission of light. It is through this medium that gravitation exists as one of the effects of divine will, since, although it appears to be a property of matter, it is inferred to be no less the effect of an habitual exercise of volition, than the erect posture preserved in man, by analogous means, unconsciously; whence, in him, it ceases with sleep. The human will, within its comparatively minute, humble sphere of action, must require also a medium analogous to that through which God acts; otherwise, how does a thought so quickly move the toe? While encompassed by its perishable tenement, there is a certain extent of this will-power enjoyed through the laws of God; but on casting off this envelope, the spirit, to be qualified for its new state of existence, becomes endowed with more extensive power of the nature in question.