Francis E. Nipher

“ What do we then know of the phenomenon that one conscious being, embodied in a mass of matter, may determine or influence the thoughts and actions of another conscious being, by formulating thoughts in words, and delivering them to him through the air? ”

“ The fact that atoms of certain substances are exploding and giving off energy is no more remarkable than the fact that nitroglycerin and limestone behave differently. It is no more remarkable than the fact that some houses fall to pieces and give off energy. And it is in no way unexpected that an advance in our knowledge of matter has vastly increased the complexity of our conceptions of its structure. The phenomena around us with which we are in a certain sense familiar are by no means simple. ”

“ THERE has long been a feeling which is still more or less strongly pronounced, that matter is not worthy of very serious attention from mind. Some have had the feeling that matter was the source of all our woes. Although all conscious beings are embodied in masses of matter, it was thought to be a prison-house which served mainly to quench those higher feelings to which we should aspire. ”

“ We are surrounded on every hand by phenomena which we think too commonplace to deserve a moment of our attention, and which we are, nevertheless, utterly unable to understand. In a crude way we can understand the machinery of sound waves. We can see the action of the vocal organs, by means of which they are produced. We can learn something of the nerve fibers of the ear upon which these sound waves fall. But what else is there at the two ends of this line of action? What is there within these two masses of matter, which enables either one of them to hold wireless communication with the other? ”

“ If a house builder should suddenly learn that the bricks which he uses are not the final elements in his houses, it would in no way disturb him. The fact that his bricks are composed of molecules, and these molecules of atoms, and these atoms of negative and positive electricity, would in no way change his professional practise in the design of houses. ”

“ It may be that the end is more remote than we now think. But even if we assent to the conclusion that in theory the end is in the infinite future, it seems certain that so far as the possibilities of human life are concerned there will be an end. ”

“ The earth will freeze. Our atmosphere will become liquid and finally solid. The stars are also going through the same history. Their heat is also being continually radiated into space. The operation is like that of a clock which has been wound up and is running down. There must have been a beginning, and there will be an end, in cold and universal night. ”

“ The fact that we now find that every atom of any kind of matter is normally the abiding place of a certain definite number of negative electrons, each having a mass of about the one thousandth of that of the hydrogen atom, does not make these atoms behave differently from what they did before. ”

“ This value equivalent of work previously done exists potentially in the form of credit at a bank, and its quantity may be increased or drawn upon, as energy itself may be stored in a pond of water, which may be drawn upon to drive a mill.
The average citizen will tell you that we do not know what electricity is, and that the sending of wireless messages, and the driving of our street-cars, are operations which are full of mystery. But it never occurs to him that there is anything mysterious about the attraction which empty houses have for homeless families. ”

“ He would think it wonderful that a balloon could be controlled by wireless methods, from a station on the earth, but it would never occur to him that there was anything remarkable about one conscious being influencing the outward action of another conscious being, by talking to him or by looking at him. ”

“ And we must add to these wonders of the material world, the still greater mysteries which are involved in life and consciousness. We may devote a lifetime to the study of these things, and we shall then feel how insignificant is our knowledge of these revelations which we are continually receiving. ”

“ Here also, in these radioactive bodies we find a store of energy which is being continually drawn upon. It is manifesting itself finally as heat which is being continually radiated into space. It may be that we must place a higher estimate than was formerly thought necessary upon the vast store of energy which the visible universes of to-day have possessed in the remote past. It may be that the work of creation was greater than we have supposed. ”

“ The results of recent work on the phenomena of radioactive bodies make it probable that the beginning of life on this earth may be much farther back in time than was formerly supposed. The heat which has been radiated from our earth has been in part supplied by the energy of these atomic explosions. ”

“ The chemist and the physicist have undertaken to study the structure and the composition of matter. And the more minutely it has been studied, the more wonderful does it seem when it is considered as a specimen of engineering and architectural construction. We were formerly told that the varied forms of matter which surround us were composed of a comparatively few elementary substances, each of which was composed of particles called atoms ”

“ We have, however, made progress, and we can all see that the possession of such knowledge as we possess, by the masses of the people, during those dark and brutal periods of religious intolerance, would have made impossible those bloody quarrels over questions to which we give not the slightest thought. ”

“ Consider the mechanical work that would be required, to take the stellar universes of to-day, as raw material, in the condition to which they are tending, and put them in the condition in which they now are. ”

“ He sees our houses and he observes that empty houses attract homeless families. He tries to explain how this attraction is to be accounted for. He becomes acquainted with Newton's law of gravitation and he at first thinks that this is the clue which he is seeking. He soon learns that the size of the house has little to do with the attraction which makes a family move into it. He is satisfied that houses do gravitationally attract people, but this is not in any way the attraction which produces the observed motion. ”

“ And we are more and more impressed with the feeling that a being capable of producing such results, must differ in many respects from an oriental despot. We may become more and more inspired with a feeling of profound admiration and wonder, as we think on these things which our eyes behold. ”

“ Being a philosopher, he straightway forms an explanation which involves the existence of a mental field of force, emanating from these conscious beings, and laying hold of these architectural and other characteristics of the houses. Next he finds that ether waves are involved in the phenomenon. The people must see the houses before the attraction begins. ”

“ These instincts prompt him to respect the rights and property of others, and to lend a hand when others need his help. He is ready to do his part in providing the children who are living amid brutal surroundings, with those influences which will inspire them with admiration for that which is pure and good and manly. ”

“ These two groups of drops are intimately commingled, as is shown by the intricate nature of the system of drainage channels. As they continue their fall to earth, they coalesce, and a brief dash of unusually large drops of rain is observed. ”

“ We can not think of him as an oriental despot, who demands praise of his creatures, most of whom have never studied physics or astronomy or chemistry or biology, and who are therefore unable to properly appreciate the wonders which surround them on every hand. ”

“ And when he goes about doing good, when he helps the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, he is not doing such deeds in order that he may secure to himself personal advantages in the nature of titles to valuable celestial properties. He thinks not of himself when his brother calls for help. He has within him the instincts of a gentleman. ”

“ The real fact appears to be that both ends of a lightning flash are usually hidden from view within the two clouds. One of these clouds contains falling drops of water which are overcharged with the negative corpuscles which atoms of all kinds of matter contain when in normal condition. The other cloud contains drops which have less than the normal charge. This cloud has always been said to be positively charged.
The writer has sought to obtain photographic evidence of the conditions within these two clouds, at the instant when the discharge
Fig. ”

“ They are a component of every atom of every kind of matter. We have only to nib any two unlike pieces of matter together, and one of them takes this negative fluid from the other. The piece of matter which has lost the electric fluid is said to be positively electrified. ”

“ IT is customary to classify lightning discharges into at least two classes. This classification is based on the appearance of the flash. One kind of lightning is called forked lightning and the other sheet lightning. There has been some discussion concerning sheet lightning, it being claimed by some that it is merely an illumination due to a discharge which is hidden from view. ”

“ And the number of bodies capable of colliding and forming world systems will have been reduced by one. To be sure, the probability of the occurrence of such collision happening during a given time interval will diminish continually, but there will evidently be an end of the present order of things. ”

“ A very simple calculation shows that to do this amount of work would require a million steam engines, of a thousand horse-power each, working continuously for between fifteen and sixteen million centuries. ”