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

OP MATTER, MINI), AND SPIRIT. 393ism, Avhicli coexists with the niortul body, during- inundauc lil'e,are liabhi;bcini>- iineonsciously under itsinfluence.1911. Tlie plienomena of mundane light being ascribed to the unduhitionsof an ethereal fluid pervading the visible universe, (1831,) and electricitybeing ascribed to the polarization of the same fluid, so the spiritsascribe their (Irctru-iti/ and tliciv liylit to the undulation and polarizationof an analogous ethereal fluid. It is to this ethereal fluid of the spiritualworld, that the phenomena called odic belong, as I conceive. We mayspeak of that ether as the odic fluid, and we may designate the light andelectricity which it produces as odic light,and odic electricity.1912. But the use of the term force, as applied either to the etherappropriate to this mundane sphere, or to that which belongs more especiallyto the spirit world, seems to me erroneous. Imponderable fluids may beinstrumental to forces, but, per sc, cannot have force. No imponderablematerial fluid can j;cr sc have any force, unless that of the reciprocal repulsionof particles, which causestheir equable difi"usion and resistance tocondensation.Electricity has less force in proportion as it is more isolated,lu vacuo it passes more difi"usely and with less noise in proportion as thevacuum is more perfect. The violence of electrical phenomena is alwaysdependent upon the reaction of the ponderable masses upon or betweenwhich it acts. In proportion as the matter on which it operates is morefavourable to its condensation therein, or thereupon, the more violent isthe deflagration or explosion which results. But in all the phenomenawhich have hitherto beenrecognised as the objects of strict physical examination,vis inertide has been indispensable to the exhibition of force." Give me but where to stand, and I will move the world,'' was the exclamationof Archimedes ;but the conviction thus expressed, of the necessityof a resisting basis, is universally recognised. In other words, therecan be no action without reaction, whether chemical, mechanical, or muscularforce be applied. Of course, it is preposterous to speak of an isolatedimponderable physical fluid, as possessing force per se. When left toitself it would remain inert, like any other inanimate matter. Clearly,isolated action on the part of such a fluid cannot be shown in any casewhatever.1913. Beichenbach alleged the substance or principle to which the nameodic has been given to be visible, but he did not adduce any instance ofits acting as a moving power so as to justify its being designated as theodic force.1914. It is, however, unnecessary that those who admit the existenceof an invisible ethereal medium through which, loithout muscular contact,or agency, effects are produced by will, should concur in their opinionsrespecting the nature of that imponderable principle. The question betweenthose agreeing in the preceding principles, is whether it is to thewill of mortals or to the will of disembodied spirits that such manifesta-