ge on which
we crossed.

In how many ways do we by our theories dodge the crucial problem of how
energy is really transmitted, that is, how matter can act on distant
matter across seemingly vacant space. Gravity, and indeed all the forms
of the attractive forces, come under this head. True, we observe certain
regularities in the way in which these phenomena occur, and the
phenomenon at one place seems to be somehow dependent on some exercise
of force at another place. And so we invent an ingenious theory, and
fortify it all around with ponderous algebraic artillery for defense
against all attack. And by persistent use of such theories we hypnotize
ourselves into the belief that we are truly scientific in method, and
are dealing with objective realities, and that these learned theories
are something more than pretentious masks to hide our ignorance of real
nature; when in reality these theories seem to be only a material screen
to shield us from an embarrassing near view of the immediate action of
God in all the various phenomena of the world; for not many find it a
comfortable thought thus to live continuously beneath the great
Taskmaster's eye.

The theory of the luminiferous ether as the medium of the transmission
of light is one of these pretentious bridges of words. Our advancing
knowledge of electro-magnetic phenomena may some day drive us back to a
modified form of the corpuscular theory of light, and then we can throw
this of the ether to the winds. In that case we would at least have a
real material cause for the phenomena with which we deal. While the
current theory of the ether has so many inconsistencies, and attempts to
bridge over so many real chasms in our thinking that it seems truly
astonishing to see it taught so long. By the theory of the ether the
problems are not solved, they are merely postponed or evaded; for while
solving one difficulty it creates a multitude of its own. How then are
we better off than before without any such theory?

Being at liberty to invent any sort of qualities for their ether,
scientists have tried to imagine such a substance as they think they
need. The ether must be a kind of matter; but unlike any matter that we
know of it cannot have weight, or else it would gravitate together here
and there, thus becoming more abundant in some places than in others;
whereas the _need_ is for a material absolutely uniform throughout
space, even throughout the interiors of solid bodies