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    "slug": "vol-1-cosmogenesis",
    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
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    "num": 37,
    "slug": "39-vii-an-attack-on-the-scientific-theory-of-force",
    "title": "VII. AN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE",
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    "text": "## VII. AN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 1, bk 3, ch 7\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 523 SUGGESTIVE ALLEGORIES.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### VII.\nAN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE\nBY A MAN OF SCIENCE.\n\n**T**HE wise words of several (English) men of Science\nhave now to be quoted in our favour. Ostracised for \"principle's\nsake\" by the few, they are tacitly approved of by the many.\nThat one of them preaches almost Occult doctrines, in some things\nidentical with, and often amounting to a public recognition of\nour \"*Fohat *and his seven Sons\" --\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 524 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe Occult *Gandharva *of the Vedas -- will be recognised\nby every Occultist, and even by some profane readers.\n\nIf the latter open Volume V. of the *Popular Science Review\n*(pp. 329-334), they will find in it an article on \"*Sun\nForce and Earth Force*,\"* *by* *Dr. B.\nW. Richardson, **F.R.S.**, which reads as follows: --\n\n\"At this moment, when the theory of mere motion as the origin\nof all varieties of force is again becoming the prevailing thought,\nit were almost heresy to re-open a debate, which for a period\nappears, by general consent, to be virtually closed; but I accept\nthe risk, and shall state, therefore, what were the precise views\nof the immortal heretic, whose name I have whispered to the readers,\n(Samuel Metcalfe), respecting Sun Force. Starting with the argument\non which nearly all physicists are agreed, that there exist in\nnature two agencies -- matter which is ponderable, visible, and\ntangible, and a something which is imponderable, invisible, and\nappreciable only by its influence on matter -- Metcalfe maintains\nthat the imponderable and active agency which he calls '*caloric*'*\n*is* not a mere form of motion*,* *not a vibration\namongst the particles of ponderable matter, but *itself a material\nsubstance flowing from the Sun *through Space,* filling the\nvoids between the particles of solid bodies, and conveying by\nsensation the property called heat. The nature of caloric, or\nSun-Force, is contended for by him on the following grounds: --\n\n\"(i.) That it may be added to, and abstracted from other\nbodies and measured with mathematical precision.\n\n\"(ii.) That it augments the volume of bodies, which are again\nreduced in size by its abstraction.\n\n\"(iii.) That it modifies the forms, properties, and conditions\nof all other bodies.\n\n\"(iv.) That *it passes by radiation through the most perfect\nvacuum**** *that can be formed, in which it produces the\nsame effects on the thermometer as in the atmosphere.\n\n\"(v.) That it exerts mechanical and chemical forces which\nnothing can restrain, as in volcanoes, the explosion of gunpowder,\nand other fulminating compounds.\n\n\"(vi.) That it operates in a sensible manner on the nervous\nsystem, producing intense pain; and when in excess, disorganization\nof the tissues.\n\n\"As against the vibratory theory, Metcalfe further argues\nthat if caloric were a *mere property or quality*,* *it\ncould not augment the volume of other bodies; for this purpose\nit must itself have volume, it must occupy space, and it must,\ntherefore, be a material agent. If caloric were *only the effect\nof vibratory motion *amongst the particles of ponderable matter,\n*it could not radiate from hot bodies *without the simultaneous\ntransition of the vibrating particles; but the fact stands out\nthat heat can radiate from material ponderable substance without\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Not only \"through space,\" but filling every point\nof our solar system, for it is the physical residue, so to say,\nof Ether, its *lining *on our plane; Ether having to serve\nother cosmic and terrestrial purposes besides being the \"*agent*\"*\n*for transmitting light. It is the astral fluid or \"Light\"\nof the Kabalists, and the \"Seven rays\" of Sun-Vishnu.\n\n** What need, then, of etheric waves for the transmission of light,\nheat, etc., if *this *substance can pass through vacuum?\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 525 DR. RICHARDSON'S HERESY.\n\nloss of weight of such substance. . . . With this view as to the\nmaterial nature of caloric or sun-force; with the impression firmly\nfixed on his mind that 'everything in Nature is composed of two\ndescriptions of matter, the one essentially active and ethereal,\nthe other passive and motionless,'* Metcalfe based the hypothesis\nthat the Sun-force, or caloric, is a Self-active principle. For\nits own particles, he holds, it has repulsion; for the particles\nof all ponderable matter it has affinity; it attracts the particles\nof ponderable matter with forces which vary inversely as the squares\nof the distance. It thus acts *through *ponderable matter.\nIf universal space were filled with caloric, sun-force, alone\n(without ponderable matter), caloric would also be inactive and\nwould constitute a boundless Ocean of powerless or quiescent ether,\nbecause it would then have nothing on which to act, while ponderable\nmatter, however inactive of itself, has 'certain properties by\nwhich it modifies and controls the actions of caloric, both of\nwhich are governed by immutable laws that have their origin in\nthe mutual relations and specific properties of each.'\n\n\"And he lays down a law which he believes is absolute, and\nwhich is thus expressed: --\n\n\" 'By the attraction of caloric for ponderable matter, it\nunites and holds together all things; by its self-repulsive energy\nit separates and expands all things.' \"\n\nThis, of course, is almost the occult explanation of cohesion.\nDr. Richardson continues: --\n\n\"As I have already said, *the tendency of modern teaching\nis to rest upon the hypothesis *. . . *that heat is motion*,*\n*or, as it would, perhaps, be better stated, a specific force\nor form of motion.**\n\n\"But this hypothesis, popular as it is, is not one that ought\nto be accepted to the exclusion of the simpler views of the material\nnature of sun-force, and of its influence in modifying the conditions\nof matter. *We do not yet know sufficient to be dogmatic.*\"*****\n\n. . . \"The hypothesis of Metcalfe respecting sun-force and\nearth-force is not only very simple, but most fascinating. . .\n. Here are two elements in the Universe, the one is ponderable\nmatter . . . The second element is the all-pervading Ether, solar-fire.\nIt is *without weight*,* substance*,* form*,*\nor colour; it is matter infinitely divisible*,* *and its\nparticles repel each other; its rarity\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* And how can it be otherwise? Gross *ponderable *matter\nis the body, the Shell of matter or Substance, the female passive\nprinciple; and this *Fohatic *force is the second principle,\n*prana* -- the male and the active? On our globe this Substance\nis the second principle of the septenary *Element* -- Earth;\nin the atmosphere, it is that of *air*, which is the cosmic\ngross body; in the Sun it becomes the *Solar body *and\nthat of the Seven rays; in sidereal space it corresponds with\nanother principle, and so on. The whole is a homogeneous Unity\nalone, the parts are all differentiations.\n\n** Or the reverberation, and for sound, repercussion *on our\nplane *of that which is a perpetual motion of that *Substance\n*on higher planes. Our world and senses *are* victims\nof *Maya*,* *ceaselessly.\n\n*** An honest admission, that.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 526 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nis such that we have no word, except ether,* by which to express\nit. It pervades and fills space, but alone it too is quiescent\n-- dead.** We bring together the two elements, the inert matter,\nthe self-repulsive Ether (?) and thereupon dead (?) ponderable\nmatter is vivified\"; [*Ponderable matter may be inert but\nnever dead* --* this is Occult Law.* --* *H.P.B.]\n. . . \"through the particles of the ponderable substance\nthe ether [*Ether*'*s second principle. *--* *H.P.B.]\npenetrates, and, so penetrating, it combines with the ponderable\nparticles and holds them in mass, holds them together in bond\nof union; they are dissolved in the Ether.\"\n\n\"This distribution of solid ponderable matter through ether\nextends, according to the theory before us, to everything that\nexists at this moment. The ether is all-pervading. The human body\nitself is charged with the ether [*Say* *astral light.\n*--* *H.P.B.]; its minute particles are held together\nby it; the plant is in the same condition; the most solid earth,\nrock, adamant, crystal, metal, all are the same. But there are\ndifferences in the capacities of different kinds of ponderable\nmatter to receive sun-force, and upon this depends the various\nchanging conditions of matter; the solid, the liquid, the gaseous\ncondition. Solid bodies have attracted caloric in excess over\nfluid bodies, and hence their firm* cohesion; *when a portion\nof molten zinc is poured upon a plate of solid zinc, the molten\nzinc becomes as solid because there is a rush of caloric from\nthe liquid to the solid, and in the equalization the particles,\npreviously loose or liquid, are more closely brought together.\n. . . Metcalfe himself, dwelling on the above-named phenomena,\nand accounting for them by the unity of principle of action, which\nhas already been explained, sums up his argument in very clear\nterms, in a comment on the densities of various bodies. 'Hardness\nand softness' (he says), 'solidity and liquidity, are not essential\nconditions of bodies, but depend on the relative proportions of\nethereal and ponderable matter of which they are composed. The\nmost elastic gas may be reduced to the liquid form by the abstraction\nof caloric, and again converted into a firm solid, the particles\nof which would cling together with a force proportional to their\naugmented affinity for caloric. On the other hand, by adding a\nsufficient quantity of the same principle to the densest metals,\ntheir attraction for it is diminished when they are expanded into\nthe gaseous state, and their cohesion is destroyed.' \"\n\nHaving thus quoted at length the *heterodox *views of the\ngreat \"heretic\" -- views that need only a little alteration\nof terms here and there, the same eminent scientist -- an original\nand liberal thinker, undeniably -- proceeds to sum up those views,\nand continues: --\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Yet it is not *Ether*,* *but only one of the principles\nof Ether, the latter being itself *one of the principles of\nAkasa.*\n\n** And so does *prana* (Jiva) pervade the whole living\nbody of man; but alone, without having an atom to act upon, it\nwould be *quiescent *--* *dead; *i.e.*, would\nbe in *laya*, or as Mr. Crookes has it, \"locked in\n*protyle*.\" It is the action of *Fohat *upon\na compound or even a simple body that produces life. When a body\ndies it passes into the same polarity as its male energy and repels\ntherefore the active agent, which, losing hold of the *whole*,\nfastens on the parts or molecules, this action being called chemical.\nVishnu, the Preserver, transforms himself into Rudra-Siva, the\nDestroyer -- a correlation seemingly unknown to Science.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 527 WE DISAGREE.\n\n\"I shall not dwell at great length on this unity of sun-force\nand earth, which this theory implies. But I may add that out of\nit, or out of the hypothesis of mere motion as force, and of virtue\nwithout substance, we may gather, as the nearest possible approach\nto the truth on this, the most complex and profound of all subjects,\nthe following inferences: --\n\n\"(*a*) Space, inter-stellary, inter-planetary, inter-material,\ninter-organic, is not a vacuum, but is filled with a subtle fluid\nor gas, which for want of a better term* we may still call, as\nthe ancients did, *Aith*-*ur *--* *Solar fire,\n**AE**THER. This fluid, unchangeable in composition,\nindestructible, invisible,** pervades everything and all [*ponderable.\n*--* *H. P. B.] matter,*** the pebble in the running brook,\nthe tree overhanging, the man looking on, is charged with the\nether in various degree; the pebble less than the tree, the tree\nless than man. All in the planet is in like manner so charged!\nA world is built up in ethereal fluid, and moving through a sea\nof it.\n\n\"(*b*) The Ether, whatever its nature is, is from the\nsun and from the suns**** the suns are the generators of it, the\nstore-houses of it, the diffusers of it.*****\n\n\"(*c*.) Without the ether there could be no motion;\nwithout it particles of ponderable matter could not glide over\neach other; without it there could be no impulse to excite those\nparticles into action.\n\n\"(*d*.) Ether determines the constitution of bodies.\nWere there no ether there could be no change of constitution in\nsubstance; water, for instance, could only exist as a substance,\ncompact and insoluble beyond any conception we could form of it.\nIt could never even be ice, never flint, never vapour, except\nfor ether.\n\n\"(*e*.) Ether connects sun with planet, planet with\nplanet, man with planet, man with man. Without ether there could\nbe no communication in the Universe; no light, no heat, no phenomenon\nof motion.\"\n\nThus we find that Ether and *elastic *atoms are, in the\nalleged *mechanical *conception of the Universe, the Spirit\nand Soul of Kosmos, and that the theory -- put it any way and\nunder whatever disguise -- always leaves a more widely opened\nissue for men of\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Verily, unless the occult terms of the Kabalists are adopted!\n\n** \"Unchangeable\" only during Manvantaric periods, after\nwhich it merges once more into Mulaprakriti; \"invisible\"\nfor ever, in its own essence, but seen in its reflected coruscations,\ncalled the Astral light by the modern Kabalists. Yet, conscious\nand grand Beings clothed in that same Essence move in it.\n\n*** One has to add (ponderable), to distinguish it from that *Ether*\nwhich is matter still, though a substratum.\n\n**** The Occult Sciences reverse the statement, and say that it\nis the sun, and all the suns that are from *it*, which\nemanate at the Manvantaric dawn from the *Central Sun.*\n\n***** Here, we decidedly beg to differ with the learned gentleman.\nLet us remember that this AEther, whether *Akasa *is meant\nby the term, or its lower principle, Ether -- is septenary. *Akasa\n*is Aditi in the allegory, and the mother of Marttanda (the\nsun), the *Deva*-*matri *-- \"Mother of the\ngods.\" In the solar system, the sun is her Buddhi and *Vahan*,*\n*the Vehicle, hence the 6th principle; in Kosmos all the suns\nare the Kama rupa of Akasa and so is ours. It is only when regarded\nas an individual Entity in his own Kingdom that Surya (the sun)\nis the 7th principle of the great body of *matter*.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 528 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nScience to speculate beyond the line drawn by modern materialism\n-- or call it *agnosticism *rather, to be more correct*\n-- than the majority avails itself of. Atoms, Ether, or both,\nmodern speculation cannot get out of the circle of ancient thought;\nand the latter was soaked through with archaic occultism. Undulatory\nor corpuscular theory -- it is all one. It is speculation from\nthe aspects of phenomena, not from the knowledge of the essential\nnature of the *cause *and* causes. *When modern\nScience has explained to its audience the late achievements of\nBunsen and Kirchoff, and shown the seven colours, the \"primary\"\nof a ray which is decomposed in a fixed order on a screen; and\ndescribed the respective lengths of luminous waves, what has it\nproved? It has justified its reputation for *exactness *in\nmathematical achievement by measuring even the length of a luminous\nwave -- \"varying from about seven hundred and sixty millionths\nof a millimetre at the red end of the spectrum to about three\nhundred and ninety-three millionths of a millimetre at the violet\nend.\" But when the exactness of the calculation with regard\nto the *effect *on the light-wave is thus vindicated, Science\nis forced to admit that the *force *(which is the *supposed\ncause*)* *is* believed *to produce \"inconceivably\nminute undulations\" in *some *medium -- \"*generally\nregarded as identical with the ethereal medium*\"** --*\n*and that medium itself is still only -- a \"*hypothetical\n*agent!\"\n\nAuguste Comte's pessimism with respect to the impossibility of\nknowing some day the chemical composition of the sun, has not\nbeen belied thirty years later by Kirchoff, as claimed. The spectroscope\nhas helped us to see that the elements, with which the modern\nchemist is familiar, *must in all probability *be present\nin the sun's outward robes -- *not in the sun itself; *and,\ntaking these \"robes,\" the solar cosmic veil, for the\nsun itself, the physicists have declared its luminosity to be\ndue to *combustion *and *flame*,* *and have\nmistaken the vital principle of that luminary for a purely *material\n*thing, and called it \"chromosphere.\"*** We have\nhypotheses and theories only so far, not law -- by any means.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Brutal but frank materialism is more honest than Janus-faced\nagnosticism in our days. *Monism *is the Pecksniff of modern\nphilosophy, turning a pharisaical face to psychology and idealism,\nand its natural face of a Roman Augur, swelling his cheek with\nhis tongue -- to Materialism. The Monists are worse than the Materialists;\nbecause, while looking at the Universe and psycho-spiritual man\nfrom the same negative stand-point, the latter put their case\nfar less plausibly than sceptics of Mr. Tyndall's or even Mr.\nHuxley's stamp. Herbert Spencer, Bain and Lewes are more dangerous\nto universal truths than Buchner.\n\n*** *\"*Geology*,\"* *by Professor\nA. Winchell.\n\n*** See *Five Years of Theosophy *--* *Articles:*\n*\"Do the Adepts deny the nebular theory?\" and \"Is\nthe Sun merely a cooling mass?\" -- for the true Occult teaching.\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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