Ancient and Modern Physics | Page 9

combinations of it; beside the atom as well as through the atom. The
grain of sand composed of many prakritic atoms is also composed of many times that
number of etheric atoms. The grain of sand is etheric matter as well as prakritic matter. It
exists on the etheric plane exactly the same as it exists on the prakritic, and it has etheric
form as well as prakritic form.
As each atom of this physical world of ours--whether of land, or water, or air; whether of
solid, liquid or gas--is the centre of an etheric molecule, we have two worlds, not one: a

physical world and an etheric one; a visible world and an invisible world; a tangible
world and an intangible world; a world of effect and a world of cause.
And each animal, including man, is made in the same way. He has a prakritic body and
an etheric body; a visible body and an invisible body; an earthly body and one "not made
with hands," in common touch with the whole universe.


Chapter Four
What a Teacher Should Teach
Let us suppose that a certain wise teacher of physics places a row of Bunsen burners
under a long steel bar having a Daniell's pyrometer at one end, and addresses his class
(substantially) as follows:
"At our last lecture we found that the matter of the universe permeated all space, but in
two conditions, which we agreed to call physical and etheric, or tangible and intangible.
It is all the same matter, subject to the same laws, but differing in the rate of vibration,
the physical matter vibrating through one great octave or plane, and the etheric vibrating
through another great octave or plane one degree higher--the chording vibration of the
matter of the two planes in one note producing what we call energy or force, and with it
phenomena.
"This is a bar of steel 36 inches long. It is composed of physical atoms but no two
physical atoms touch. Each physical atom is as far apart from every other atom as the
stars in heaven from one another--in proportion to their size. The atoms and the spaces
between them are so small to our sight that they seem to touch. If we had a microscope of
sufficient power to reveal the atom, you would see that no two atoms touch, and that the
spaces between them are, as Faraday says, very great in proportion to their size. I showed
you last term that what appeared to be a solid stream of water, when magnified and
thrown upon a screen, was merely a succession of independent drops that did not touch. I
can not yet give you proof of the bar of iron being composed of independent atoms, but
that is the fault of our instruments, and you must take my word for it until the proof is
simplified and made easy of application.
"Each one of these physical atoms is a miniature world. It is the center of an ocean of
ether, composed of many atoms; and while no two physical atoms touch, their etheric
atmospheres do touch, and any change in the vibration of the etheric atmosphere of one
will be imparted to that of the next. As the vibration of the physical atom must be in
harmony with that of its etheric atmosphere, any change coming to one will be imparted
to the next, and the next, through the ether surrounding them.
"You can see that the index at the end of the bar has moved, showing that it is now longer.
That means the etheric atoms are now vibrating faster, taking more space, and have

necessarily forced each physical atom farther apart. The bar is not only longer, but softer,
and as the vibrations increase in rapidity the time will come when it will bend by its own
weight, and even when it will become a liquid and a gas.
"If you put your hand anywhere near the bar you will feel a sensation called heat, and say
it has become hot. The reason for that is that you are in actual and literal touch with the
bar or iron through the ether. It is not alone each atom of the bar of iron that is
surrounded by the ether, but each atom of the air, and each atom of your body. Their
etheric atmospheres are all touching, and the increase in the vibration of the ether
surrounding the atoms of iron is imparted to those of the air surrounding it, and these in
turn raise the rate of vibration in the etheric atoms surrounding the physical atoms of your
hand. This rate of vibration in your nerves causes a sensation, or mental impression, you
call "heat." Consciousness of it comes through your