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572 THE SECRET DOCTRINE-
(ii)
abstraction.
That it augments the volume of bodies, which are again reduced in size by its
(iii) That it modifies the forms, properties, and conditions of all other bodies.
(iv) That it passes by radiation through the most perfect vacuum* that can be
formed, in which it produces the same effects on the thermometer as in the atmosphere.
(v) That it exerts mechanical and chemical forces which nothing can restrain, as
in volcanoes, the explosion of gunpowder, and other fulminating compounds.
(vi) That it operates in a sensible manner on the nervous system, producing
intense pain ; and when in excess, disorganization of the tissues.
As against the vibratory theory, Metcalfe further argues that if caloric were a
mere property or quality, it could not augment the volume of other bodies; for this
purpose it must itself have volume, it must occupy space, and it must, therefore, be
a material agent. If caloric were only the effect of vibratory tnotion amongst the
particles of ponderable matter, it could not radiate from hot bodies without the
simultaneous transition of the vibrating particles;
but the fact stands out that heat
can radiate from material ponderable substance without loss of weight of such substance.
. . . With this view as to the material nature of caloric or sun-force;
with the impression firmly fixed on his mind that "everything in Nature is composed
of two descriptions of matter, the one essentially active and ethereal, the
other passive and motionless," t Metcalfe based the hypothesis that the sunforce,
or caloric, is a self-active principle. For its own particles, he holds, it has
repulsion; for the particles of all ponderable matter it has affinity; it attracts the
particles of ponderable matter with forces which vary inversely as the squares of
the distance. It thus acts through ponderable matter. If universal space were
filled with caloric, sun-force, alone (without ponderable matter), caloric would also
be inactive and would constitute a boundless ocean of powerless or quiescent
ether, becatise it would then have nothing on which to act, while ponderable
matter, however inactive of itself, has "certain properties by which it modifies and
controls the actions of caloric, both of which are governed by immutable laws that
have their origin in the mutual relations and specific properties of each."
And he lays down a law which he believes is absolute, and which is thus expressed
:
"By the attraction of caloric for ponderable matter, it unites and holds together
all things; by its self-repulsive energy it separates and expands all things."
This, of course, is almost the Occult explanation of cohesion. Dr.
Richardson continues:
As I have alreadj' said, the tendency of modern teaching is to rest upon the hypothesis
* What need, then, of etheric waves for the transmission of light, heat, etc., M this substance can
pass through vacuum.
t And hov can it be otherwise Gross ponderable matter is the body, the shell, of Matter or Substance,
the female passive principle; and this Fohatic Force is the second principle, Prana—the male
and the active. On our globe this Substance is the second principle of the septenary Element
Earth ; in the atmosphere, it is that of Air, which is the cosmic gross bod}- ; in the Sun it becomes
the Solar Body and that of the Seven Rays: in Sidereal Space it corresponds vrith another principle,
and so on. The whole is a homogeneous Unity alone, the parts are all differentiations.