Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

OF MATTER, MIND, AND SPIRIT.3G3great mutual friandship witli my late sister, as well as with uiyself, I Laveconsulted her spirit as to the origin of the impressions whieh had beenthus indited by our common friend. It appears from her reply to myinquiry, that these ideas were communicated to him by my spirit father,and that his conversion to Spiritualism had commenced prior to his decease,which took place about two years ago.OF MATTER, MIND, AND SPIRIT.Of Matter.17G9. It is a fact, that as we study more deeply the nature of matter,we find that we know the less about it. The crude impressions by whichitmakes us sensible of its presence are, of course, intuitively received, andare reiterated incessantly. Hence, the mass of mankind do not imaginethat there can be any mystery respecting that ponderable matter whichinfluences the scale-beam. The existence of any other matter, people generallyare slow to admit. The electric fluid and caloric, the supposedcauses of electricity and heat, were rarely believed in,out of the scientificworld, \ivX i:)ondcrahle matter is the last thing of which any person wouldimagine himself ignorant.investigators of nature, have not made up theirminds as to what ponderablematter is.Yet we find that some of the most experienced1770. According to Newton, matter consists of hard, impenetrable particles,endowed with vh inertlee, gravitation, and chemical attraction forother particles;vis inertias being that force by which a body, if in motion,requires a certain degree of force to arrest or retard it, or to put it intomotion if at rest.Gravitation causes all masses to attract each other reciprocall}'-,with a force exactly proportioned to their vis inertiae ; so thatthese forces are reciprocally measures of each other. It is usual to makegravitation its own measure, by estimating it to be as the weight of themass;while weight is only the reciprocal attraction of gravitation betweenthe body tried, and the earth. (64.)1771. These properties being conceded as belonging to matter, and themeasure of its quantity, the next question is, of what does massive matterconsist ? As to the ratio of weight to bulk, which is designated as ^' specificgraviti/j' we see an immense disparity between solids. Potassium,for instance, weighs three-fourths of its bulk of water, while platinumweighs twenty-one times its bulk in that fluid. The density of gaseoushydrogen is to that of platina not more than 1 to 25,000, and yet it maybe rarified to the one-hundreth part of its normal spissitude, while apparentlyfilling the same space. Thus the same space may be filled successivelyby different portions of matter, yet the quantity of matter in the