1nCnVqgFI

ACTIO IN DISTANS. 529
neither as Akasha, nor as the one sacred ^ther of the Greeks, is it to
be found in any of the states of Matter known to modem Physics.
is Matter on quite another plane of perception and being, and it
neither be analyzed by scientific apparatus, nor appreciated or even
conceived by the "scientific imagination," unless the possessors thereof
study the Occult Sciences. That which follows proves this statement.
It is clearly demonstrated by Stallo as regards the crucial problems
of modern Physics, as was done by De Quatrefages and several others
in those of Anthropology, Biology, etc., that, in their efforts to support
their individual hypotheses and systems, most of the eminent and
learned Materialists very often utter the greatest fallacies.
It
can
Let us take
the following case. Most of them reject actio in distans—one of the
fundamental principles in the question of -^ther or Akasha in Occultism—while,
as Stallo justly observes, there is no physical action
"which, on close examination, does not resolve itself into actio in
distans'' ; and he proves it.
Now, metaphysical arguments, according to Professor Lodge,* are
"unconscious appeals to experience." And he adds that if such an
experience is not co7iceivable, then it does not exist.
In his own words:
If a highly-developed mind or set of minds, find a doctrine about some comparatively
simple and fundamental matter absolutely unthinkable, it is an evidence
. . . that the unthinkable state of things has no existence.
And thereupon, toward the end of his lecture, the Professor indicates
that the explanation of cohesion, as well as of gravity, "is to be looked
for in the vortex-atom theory of Sir William Thomson."
It is needless to stop to inquire whether it is to this vortex-atom
theory, also, that we have to look for the dropping down on earth of the
first life-germ by a passing meteor or comet—Sir William Thomson's
hypothesis.
But Prof. Lodge might be reminded of the wise criticism
on his lecture in Stallo's Cojicepts of Modem Physics. Noticing the
above-quoted declaration by the Professor, the author asks
Whether . . , the elements of the vortex-atom theory are familiar, or even possible,
facts of experience For, if they are not, clearly that theory is obnoxious to
the same criticism which is said to invalidate the assumption of actio in distans. f
And then the able critic shows clearly what the Ether is not, nor can
ever be, notwithstanding all scientific claims to the contrary. And
thus he opens widely, if unconsciously, the entrance door to our Occult
Teachings.
For, as he says:
• Nature, vol. xxvii. p. 304.
t Op. ctt., p. xxiv.
35