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 by Wm. Thornton. As a subject which does not admit of verification by the prescribed canons of mechanical physics is held to be unworthy of attention, as untenable, it is fortunate for the cause of humanity that modern science has reached its ultima thule, where the tide of materialism must set back and carry with it the driftwood of skepticism which has been accumulating during this century. To quote the words of a physicist (at the Forest Gate Physical and Chemical Laboratories), "The door, between us and the spirit-world, which it has been declared is shut and bolted is even now ajar and a few gleams of light are struggling over the threshold from Keely's discoveries." The artificial beacon, fed with the oil of learning, so proudly held aloft by modern science, is flickering; and many great minds are rebelling against the darkness in which it has plunged the mysteries it sought in vain to unravel. The Popery of scientific authority must have its downfall now that researchers after knowledge are making a stand and contending their right to think for themselves, instead of allowing dogmatic science to decide for them. There is a light which sympathetic physics teaches us will never fail: -- the inner light, or intuition, if we seek its guiding rays. The Spirit of Truth will lead us into all truth is the promise given by One who spake as never man spake before; and, with the foundation stones of pseudo-science crumbling away, there is nothing left to fall back upon but the fortress of Revelation. "In the beginning was the Word (Logos in Greek; the divine principle of Truth, of thought, intelligence, knowledge) and the Word was God. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not." Carlyle defined genius as "the clearer presence of God Most High in a man." If we admit that "God sends His teachers unto every age, with revelations fitted to their growth," instead of rejecting what seems to advance thought to be "a fuller revelation of revelation" (suited to the needs of our age) because of the obscurity of the language used by Keely, would it not be more rational to accept Professor Pierson's views? viz., "the very fact that there is, about the product of another's genius, what you and I cannot understand, a proof of a superior order of faculties." No one who has ever conversed with Keely, in an unprejudiced spirit, has denied that he is a man of genius; and, unintelligible as his writings may be, in the present state of our knowledge, the time will come when they will be as well understood as are the writings of Gilbert and Faraday now; for commerce will be able to accomplish what science refuses to do; and journalism is already extending "a helping hand," since it has been announced that Professor Lascelles-Scott thinks aerial navigation will be the fait accompli of the Victorian era, as the result of Keely's discovery of the force foreshadowed by Faraday, by Newton, and by Kepler in their writings, as "a force of nature, still unknown, more general and more powerful even than electricity." This force may be in more senses than one "the force of the future;" for, until the current now harnessed has been connected with some patentable device, commerce will not come to the rescue; and unless a more general public interest is awakened, than has yet been manifested, Keely's system of vibratory physics may have to await a more enlightened inquiry from influential quarters. A distinguished physicist, who is himself an independent researcher, writes; "I am afraid that making things known to the public does not advance truth much. They will soon enough run after what pays them. I should have thought that, at the present stage, 'They also serve who stand and wait,' was a safer motto than 'Cry aloud from the housetops,' If Mr. Keely be perfecting his machine, having, as I understand, practically completed his experimenting, surely it is a time for waiting patiently for the results of his labors." The extreme simplicity of this system, its conformity to nature, and its capability of affording an adequate and satisfactory explanation of the most important phenomena of the universe, upon one common principle, entitles it to receive the attention of all independent thinkers who feel an interest in the discovery and dissemination of scientific truth; and who, dissatisfied with the complicated structures which modern science has reared upon a variety of gratuitous assumptions, seek to withdraw that veil (hitherto deemed impenetrable) which has long shrouded some of the most important secrets of nature, and concealed from our knowledge the operations of the most godlike element in man, the human will.
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