en the so-called X or unknown
rays which have a much higher vibration still. Electricity is a form of
vibration, and according to the belief of many scientists, life is a
species of vibration so high that we have no possible means of measuring
it. As every student of science knows, air appears to be the chief
medium for conveying vibration of sound, metal is the chief medium for
conveying electric vibrations, while to account for the vibrations of
heat and light we have to assume (or imagine) an invisible, imponderable
ether which fills all space and has no property of matter that we can
distinguish except that of conveying vibrations of light in its various
forms. When we pass on to human life, we have to theorize chiefly by
analogy. (It must not be forgotten, however, that the existence of the
ether and many assumed facts in science are only theories which have
come to be generally adopted because they explain phenomena of all kinds
better than any other theories which have been offered.)

Now, in life, as in physical science, any one who can get, or has by
nature, the key-note of another nature, has a tremendous power over that
other nature. The following story illustrates what this power is in the
physical world. While we cannot vouch for the exact truth of the details
of the story, there can be no doubt of the accuracy of the principle on
which it is based:

"A musical genius came to the Suspension Bridge at Niagara Falls, and
asked permission to cross; but as he had no money, his request was
contemptuously refused. He stepped away from the entrance, and, drawing
his violin from his case, began sounding notes up and down the scale. He
finally discovered, by the thrill that sent a tremor through the mighty
structure, that he had found the note on which the great cable that
upheld the mass, was keyed. He drew his bow across the string of the
violin again, and the colossal wire, as if under the spell of a
magician, responded with a throb that sent a wave through its enormous
length. He sounded the note again and again, and the cable that was
dormant under the strain of loaded teams and monster engines--the cable
that remained stolid under the pressure of human traffic, and the heavy
tread of commerce, thrilled and surged and shook itself, as mad waves of
vibration coursed over its length, and it tore at its slack, until like
a foam-crested wave of the sea, it shook the towers at either end, or,
like some sentient ani