Action at a distance

“ When we contrast the distance senses with the contact senses we see at once that the great advantage coming from the possession of distance senses is in the time that is permitted for action. In the chapter on contact senses we emphasized the fact that the response to them must be immediate; there is no time to pick and choose. When we can learn of the presence of objects before they reach us, and something of their direction and distance as well, we can usually take time to select the most fitting course of action. ”

“ This at least, he would hold, was disproved by his discoveries, because to defend it by assuming an occult property of matter, which could extend to a distance, was absurd. All, however, which he really says is that one body cannot, uncaused, act on another at a distance. ”

“ It would surely be scarcely reasonable to expect that the theory should be capable of giving full satisfaction in all cases. It would be even strange if some difficulties did not present themselves at the outset. We can only say that by explaining some important or fundamental facts (such as gravitation, some effects of cohesion, &c.) , the hope may be reasonably entertained that an addition to knowledge will throw light upon others — so long as we hold to strict mechanical conceptions, and do not close the door to discovery by postulating the mystery of " action at a distance." ”

“ The situation with respect to action at a distance is typical of the general situation. I believe the essence of the explanatory process is such that we must be prepared to accept as an ultimate for our explanations the mere statement of a correlation between phenomena or situations with which we are sufficiently familiar. ”

“ But the more the distance decreases between this object and our body (the more, in other words, the danger becomes urgent or the promise immediate) , the more does virtual action tend to pass into real action. ”

“ Do not Bodies act upon Light at a distance, and by their action bend its Rays; and is not this action (cæteris paribus) strongest at the least distance? ”

“ The present must be as really worthy, but time and distance have a character of their own which they impart to all circumstances, as distance in space makes green and rugged mountains soft and purple like the hue of a fruit. ”

“ Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye; and while we glide along the stream of time, whatever we leave behind us is always lessening, and that which we approach increasing in magnitude. ”

“ When we reflect, therefore, on any object distant from ourselves, we are oblig'd not only to reach it at first by passing thro all the intermediate space betwixt ourselves and the object, but also to renew our progress every moment ”

“ Now, even supposing that we are acquainted with all the methods which exist in nature for spanning vast distances, and if, as we have shown, distance may be expressed in terms of the time taken to travel over it, or transmit a communication across it, the thought forcibly occurs. ”

“ And when they have to return from a great depth, they hold in their breath, as if calculating the distance, and gathering themselves up they shoot forward like an arrow, wishing with all speed to accomplish the distance to their breathing-place. ”

“ Not that mere distance will give animation to the work, if it has none in itself; but if it has life at all, the distance will make that life more perceptible and powerful by softening the defects of execution. ”

“ If you are without distance, make a Motion to see if he will answer your Feint, and if he do begin again, make your first Motion, as within distance, approaching at the same time, and so your second and third. ”

“ Why distance weakens the conception and passion: Why distance in time has a greater effect than that in space: And why distance in past time has still a greater effect than that in future. We must now consider three phaenomena, which seem to be, in a manner, the reverse of these: Why a very great distance encreases our esteem and admiration for an object; Why such a distance in time encreases it more than that in space: And a distance in past time more than that in future. ”

“ I rejoice with you that we have lived to see this day, and that we are still fighting the good fight, with the hopeful spirit, if the physical energies are less352 than when we commenced. There is a great distance between the point we have attained and the valley whence we started—a distance not measured by time. The true standard is an experience such as our life alone can supply. ”

“ Some motions and virtues are to be found of a directly contrary nature to these, which act in contact but not at a distance; namely, such as operate at a distance and not in contact, and again act with less force at a less distance, and the reverse. Sight, for instance, is not easily effective in contact, but requires a medium and distance ”

“ Like thumbs, vestigial stubs—but there you sit.
Thank God the aeroplane came on to help,
And wipe out distance, for you find at last
Distance is tragedy, terrifies the soul
With space which must be mastered by the soul. ”

“ So we view an object at a distance, which excites in us an inclination to visit it: this, after many tedious steps and intricate windings, we do; but, if we could fly, we should never consent to go on foot. ”

“ Which is all as it should be; for, annihilate time and space as you may, a man's stride remains the true standard of distance; an eternal and unalterable scale. The severe horizon, too, repels the thoughts as you gaze to the infinite considerations that lie about, within touch and hail; and the night cometh, when no man can work. ”

“ Have a man (later, several) walk away from the rest of the [Pg 362] men and when he is about to disappear from view, halt him, and estimate the distance. Send a man (later, several) outside the field of vision, to advance on the rest of the men. ”

“ They, I say, will not dim or efface his glory, but they are now giving the last finish and consummation to his work. Hitherto the inhabitants of the two worlds have associated perhaps in the chilling atmosphere of distance with each other—a sort of bowing distance ”

“ Suppose, further, that a number of men had been thrown over a precipice at the same time as he and that the bottom of the abyss was the distance from star to star! Suppose that they fell at the same rate of speed! The first to be dashed against a shelf of rock would be a ghastly reminder to each man of his own approaching end. ”

“ What has space or time to do with being? Can distance destroy fact? What if one day the chain of gravity were to break, and, starting from the edge of the pine wood, we fared or flew farther and farther towards the bars of gold and rose and green! ”

“ But if the journeys are planned or set out on a block of matter, they do not remain quite the same when it is conveyed through space: the journey across the direction of motion becomes longer than the other journey, as we have just seen. And the extra distance compensates or neutralises the extra speed ”

“ Like the storks and the swallows, I yearn for the distant land, and where should the human eye be more likely to be permitted, at least in fancy, to discern the remote goal than from the summit of a mountain?
"The limitless distance which the spirit craves for seems there to assume a form tangible to the senses, and the eye detects its border line. My whole being feels not merely elevated, but expanded, and that vague longing which comes over me as soon as I mix once more in the turmoil of life, and when the cares of state demand my strength, vanishes. ”

“ But if we are considering what did happen, we shall certainly decide that man has distanced everything else with a distance like that of the astronomical spaces and a speed like that of the still thunderbolt of the light. ”

“ Distance in time, as in space, smooths down all the inequalities of surface; and as the cragged and rugged mountain, darkened by cliff and precipice, shows to the far-off traveller but some blue and misty mass, so the long-lost-sight-of hours lose all the cares and griefs that tinged them, and to our mental eye, are but objects of uniform loveliness and beauty ”

“ If there be more or fewer intervening objects than usual, if the atmosphere be more or less clear than usual, or any like circumstance affords a variation from our ordinary experience, we are misled as to the distance of the object. ”

“ Distance is time, and when by steam, whether on water or on land, personal communication is facilitated, and when orders are conveyed from one extremity of the Empire to another almost like a flash of lightning, the facility of governing a large State becomes almost equal to the facility of governing the smallest. ”

“ Is there a single known example of movement produced without a force acting from the outside? No. Well, movement at a distance would very plainly take place by an active external force. Therefore movement at a distance is impossible. ”

“ The greater the distance of the observer, the deeper becomes the impression of the general impulse of advance, of the sameness of its direction and motion. Can we see a difference as compared with earlier times? Can we notice if the new class of soldiers are equal to the older ”

“ Distance and time add their values to light and vision, and as his life expands to greater fullness, the perspective of his existence creeps into his consciousness, and he finds himself farther away, but still peering beyond into the infinity of distance, searching for the visible evidence of knowledge. ”

“ But it is not only the distance that reduces our power of seeing, but also the layers, or veils of atmosphere that hang between us and the object. We are sure of this on a foggy day, when the mist lies low over the country or city, and trees and tall buildings loom up like blurs, and everything beyond the distance of a few hundred paces is blotted from sight. ”

“ The obstacles of time and distance, hitherto so formidable, are swept away by telegraph and telephone. We send our thought and speech with lightning swiftness to the four quarters of the globe, and hold all lands and peoples within the sphere of instant intercourse. ”

“ To define movement as a series of positions, with a generating law, with a time-table or correspondence sheet between places and times, is surely a ready-made presentation. Are we not confusing the trajectory and its performance, the points traversed and the traversing of the points, the result of the genesis of the result; in short, the quantitative distance over which the flight extends, and the qualitative flight which puts this distance behind it? In this way the very mobility which is the essence of movement vanishes. There is the same common mistake about time. ”

“ Valuable as the telephone may be in business affairs, it is simply invaluable in the affairs of love; and mechanicians the world over are absorbed in the problem of aerial flight, whether they know it or not, chiefly to provide Love with wings as swift as his desire.
Distance may lend enchantment to those whom we prefer to appreciate from afar, but nearness is the real enchantment to your true lover, and distance is his natural enemy. Distance and the slow-footedness of Time are his immemorial evils. Both of these modern science has all but annihilated. ”

“ It is certainly easier to reach an object near us than one at a distance, but when the nearest one does not suit our purpose it does not follow that dividing the work, that a resting point, will enable us to get over the second half of the road easier. ”

“ Sometimes two of them thus furnished agree to start opposite one to another, at a great distance; they meet, elevate their poles, attack and strike each other, when one or both of them fall, and not without some bodily hurt; and even after their fall they shall be carried a good distance from each other by the rapidity of the motion. ”

“ This easy progression of ideas favours the imagination, and makes it conceive its object in a stronger and fuller light, than when we are continually oppos'd in our passage, and are oblig'd to overcome the difficulties arising from the natural propensity of the fancy. A small degree of distance in the past has, therefore, a greater effect, in interrupting and weakening the conception, than a much greater in the future. ”

“ In the words of Mr Bailey, "Whether objects are seen to be external, or at some distance, is one question altogether distinct from the inquiry—whether objects are seen by the unassisted vision to be at different distances from the percipient." ”

“ Upon calculating as nearly as our knowledge of the country enabled us to do, we found that we had made five-and-thirty miles during the night, and ten or twelve miles more would put what might be considered a sufficient distance for the time between ourselves and our enemies. ”

“ It is a fact of experience that bodies can attract each other at a distance, without the intervention of any chain. Why should not the sun and earth so attract each other? and why should not the fall of bodies from a height be the result of their attraction by the earth? ”