infer
that it must exist in order to account for transmission of light and
various other phenomena. If it were possible for us to live in a room from
which the air had been exhausted we might speak at the top of our voices,
we might ring the largest bell or we might even discharge a cannon close
to our ear and we should hear no sound, for air is the medium which
transmits sound vibrations to the tympanum of our ear, and that would be
lacking. But if an electric light were lighted, we should at once perceive
its rays; it would illumine the room despite the lack of air. Hence there
must be a substance, capable of being set into vibration, between the
electric light and our eyes. That medium scientists call ether, but it is
so subtile that no instrument has been devised whereby it may be measured
or analyzed and therefore the scientists are without much information
concerning it, though forced to postulate its existence.

We do not seek to belittle the achievements of modern scientists, we have
the greatest admiration for them and we entertain high expectations of
what ambitions they may yet realize, but we perceive a limitation in the
fact, that all discoveries of the past have been made by the invention of
wonderful instruments applied in a most ingenious manner to solve
seemingly insoluble and baffling problems. The strength of science lies
vested in its instruments, for the scientist may say to anyone: Go,
procure a number of glasses ground in a certain manner, insert them in a
tube, direct that tube toward a certain point in the sky where now nothing
appears to your naked eye. You will then see a beautiful star called
Uranus. If his directions are followed, anyone is _quickly and without
preparation_, able to demonstrate for himself the truth of the scientist's
assertion. But while the instruments of science are its tower of strength
they also mark the end of its field of investigation, for it is impossible
to contact the spirit world with _physical_ instruments, so the research
of occultists begins where the physical scientist finds his limit and are
carried on by _spiritual_ means.

These investigations are as thorough and as reliable as researches by
material scientists, but not as easily demonstrable to the general public.
Spiritual powers lie dormant within every human being, and when awakened,
they compensate for both telescope and microscope, they enable their
possessor to investigate, _instanter_, things beyo