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"IS LIGHT A BODY, OR NOT" 525
"AN LUMEN SIT CORPUS, NEC NON"
Most decidedly light is not a body, we are told. Physical Sciences
say light is a force, a vibration, the undulation of Ether. It is the
property or quality of Matter, or even an aJBfection thereof—never a
body !
Just so. For this discovery', the knowledge, whatever it may be
worth, that light or caloric is not a motion of material particles, Science
is chiefly, if not solely indebted, to Sir William Grove. It was he who
in a lecture at the London Institution, in 1842, was the first to show
that "heat, light,* may be considered as afifections of matter itself,
and not of a distinct ethereal, 'imponderable,' fluid [a state of matter
now\ permeating it."t Yet, perhaps, for some Physicists—as for
QJrsted, a very eminent Scientist—Force and Forces were tacitly
"Spirit [and hence Spirits] in Nature." What several rather mystical
Scientists taught was that light, heat, magnetism, electricity and
gravity, etc., were not the final Causes of the visible phenomena,
including planetary motion, but were themselves the secondary effects
of other Causes, for which Science in our day cares very little, but in
which Occultism believes; for the Occultists have exhibited proofs of
the validity of their claims in every age. And in what age were there
no Occultists and no Adepts
Sir Isaac Newton held to the Pythagorean corpuscular theory, and
was also inclined to admit its consequences; which made the Comte de
Maistre hope, at one time, that Newton would ultimately lead Science
back to the recognition of the fact that Forces and the Celestial Bodies
were propelled and guided by Intelligetices.X But de Maistre counted
without his host. The innermost thoughts and ideas of Newton were
* Mr. Robert Ward, discussing the questions of Heat and Light in the 'Nox&:n)xT Journal of Science,
1881, shows us how utterly ignorant is Science about one of the commonest facts of Nature—the heat
of the Sun. He says: "The question of the temperature of the sun has been the subject of investigation
with many scientists: Newton, one of the first investigators of this problem, tried to determine
it, and after him all the scientists who have been occupied with calorimetry have followed his
example. All have believed themselves successful, and have formulated their results with great
confidence. The following, iu the chronological order of the publication of the results, are the
temperatures (in centigrade degrees) found by each of them: Newton, 1,699,300°; Pouillet, 1,461°;
Tollner, 102,200°; Secchi, 5,344,840°; Ericsson, 2,726,700°; Fizeau, 7,500°; Waterston, 9,000,000°; Spoeren,
27,000°; Deville, 9,500°; Soret, 5,801,846°; Vicaire, 1,500°; Rosetti, 20,000°. The difference is as 1,400°
against 9,000,000°, or no less than 8,998,600°!! There probably does not exist in science a more
astonishing contradiction than that revealed in these figures." And yet without doubt if an Occultist
were to give out an estimate, each of these gentlemen would vehemently protest in the name of
"exact" Science at the rejection of his special result.
t See Correlation of the Physical Forces, Preface.
X Soirees, vol. ii.