and
goes to pieces. The material elements are not fixed. The decided
tendency of belief is toward a single element, of which all matter is
composed, and of which the eighty-odd constituent elements of matter
accepted to-day are but modifications. That unit element may be the
ether, of course. And the great Russian chemist, Mendeleef, so
believed. But to us, the ether is a mental thing, a theory. But,
granting its existence, _its universal penetrability renders matter,
as we know it, non-existent_. Everything reduces to the ether, in the
final analysis. And all energy becomes vibrations in and of the
ether."

"And the ether," supplemented the doctor, "has to be without mass,
invisible, tasteless, intangible, much more rigid than steel, and at
the same time some six hundred billion times lighter than air, in
order to fulfill all the requirements made of it and to meet all
conditions."

"Yes; and yet the ether is a very necessary theory, if we are going to
continue to explain the phenomena of force on a material basis."

"But if we abandon that basis--?"

"Then," said Carmen, "matter reduces to what it really is, the human
mind's _interpretation_ of substance."

"Yes," said Hitt, turning to her; "I think you are right; matter is
the way real substance--let us say, spirit--looks to the human
mentality. It is the way the human mind interprets its ideas of
spirit. In other words, the human mind looks at the material thoughts
and ideas which enter it, and calls them solid substance, occupying
space--calls them matter, with definite laws, and, in certain forms,
containing life and intelligence."

"Aye, that is it!" said Father Waite. "And that has been the terrible
mistake of the ages, the one great error, the one lie, that has caused
us all to miss the mark and come short, far short, of the glory of the
mind that is God. _There is the origin of the problem of evil!_"

"Undoubtedly," replied Hitt. "For evil is in essence but evil thought.
And evil thought is invariably associated with matter. The origin of
all evil is matter itself. And matter, we find, is but a mental
concept, a thing of thought. Oh, the irony of it!"

"Well," put in Haynerd, who had been twitching nervously in his chair,
"let's get to the conclusion of this very learned discussion. I'm a
plain man, and I'd like to know just where we've landed. What have you
said that I can take home with me? The earth still revolves around the
sun, even if it is a