1nCnVqgFI

PURANAS VBRSUS ROYAL SOCIETY.
64I
Thus inductive Science, in its branches of Astronom)', Physics, and
Cheniisti-y, while advancing timidly towards the conquest of Nature's
secrets in her final effects on our terrestrial plane, recedes to the days
of Anaxagoras and the Chaldees in its discoveries of (a) the origin of
our phenomenal world, and (b) the modes of formation of the bodies
that compose the Universe. And having, for their cosmogonical hypotheses
to turn back to the beliefs of the earliest philosophers, and the
systems of the latter—systems that were all
a
based on the teachings of
universal Secret Doctrine with regard to primeval Matter, with its
properties, functions, and laws—have we not the right to hope that the
day is not far off when Science will show a better appreciation of the
Wisdom of the Ancients than it has hitherto done
No doubt Occult Philosophy could learn a good deal from exact
Modern Science; but the latter, on the other hand, might profit by
ancient learning in more than one way, and chiefly in Cosmogony. It
might learn, for instance, the mystical signification, alchemical and
transcendental, of the many ivipondcrabie substances that fill interplanetary
space, and which, interpenetrating each, are the direct cause,
at the lower end, of the production of natural phenomena manifesting
through so-called vibration. The knowledge of the real, not the hypothetical,
nature of Ether, or rather of the Akasha, and other mysteries,
in short, can alone lead to the knowledge of F'orces. It is that Substance
against which the
Materialistic school of the Physicists rebels
with such i\xry, especially in France,* and which exact Science has to
advocate notwithstanding. They cannot make away with it without
incurring the risk of pulling down the pillars of the Temple of Science,
like a modern Samson, and of getting buried under its roof.
The theories built upon the rejection of Force, outside and independent
of Matter pure and simple, have all been shown to be fallacious.
They do not, and cannot, cover the ground, and many of the scientific
data are thus proved to be unscientific. "Ether produced Sound" is
said in the Purdnas, and the statement is laughed at. Sound is the
And what is air
result of the vibrations of the air, we are corrected.
Could it exist if there were no etheric medium in Space to buoy up its
molecules The case stands simply thus. Materialism cannot admit
* A group of electricians has just protested against the new theory of Clausius, the famous professor
of the University of Bonn. The character of the protest is shown in the signature, which has
"Jules Bourdin, in the name of the group of Electricians, which had the honour of being introduced
to Professor Clausius in 1881, and whose war-cr>' {cri de ralli'ement) is A bas I' Ether"—down with
Ether, even ; they want Universal Void, you see 1
„