tain the electric conception of space
and matter, and do away with the aetherial, as being altogether
unnecessary. See _Appendix B_.

Thus are we led to the conclusion that electricity is itself a form of
matter, as indeed it must be if it is atomic, as suggested by Dr. Larmor
and Professor Thomson.

Professor Lodge, on p. 9 of the work already referred to, states:
"Electricity in this respect behaves just like a substance;" and again,
p. 313, he writes: "We cannot assert that it is a form of matter,
neither can we deny it; on the other hand, we certainly cannot assert
that it is a form of energy, and I should be disposed to deny it. It may
be that electricity is an _entity per se, just as matter is an entity
per se_."

Whether electricity be a form of matter or not, as I believe it
undoubtedly is, we have arrived at the fact, in view of the identity
between Aether and electricity, that, wherever the one is present, the
other is present also. So that if it can be demonstrated by direct
experiment that matter can be changed into its equivalent quantities of
electricities, or that equivalent quantities of electricities could
produce their equivalent forms of matter, then the electrical basis of
matter, and consequently the aetherial basis of matter, are proved
beyond contradiction, and we are thus led one step nearer to the
ultimate unity of the Universe, which unity is to be found in the
universal electro-magnetic Aether, which is identical with universal
electricity. For if Aether be the basis of all modes of motion, as heat,
light, and gravitation, and it is identical with electricity, it follows
that electricity is equally the basis of all the varied phenomena, and
if to that we add the constitution of matter itself, then we are within
sight of the medium in which the ultimate unity of the Universe is to be
found.

This view of the subject has already been dealt with by a German
scientist, Professor Vogt, in his book on _The Nature of Electricity and
Magnetism_, a book, however, which is not translated into English. In
that work I believe he shows the possibility of all matter having its
origin in electricity; and if that be so, then that theory is really
identical with an aetherial basis of matter, seeing that Aether and
electricity philosophically seem to be one and the same medium. Let us
therefore turn to Faraday's experiments, and see what they teach us on
the subject of the electrical basis of matter, and t