more than swirling seas of attracted gases, something more than
compacted rocks. We look for soil, verdure, a paradise of beauty,
animal life, and immortal minds. Let us go on with the process.

Light is the child of force, and the child, like its father, is full
of power. We dowered our created world with but a single quality--a
force of attraction. It not only had attraction for its own material
substance, but sent out an all-pervasive attraction into space. By
the force of condensation it flamed like a sun, and not only lighted
its own substance, but it filled all space with the luminous outgoings
of its power. A world may be limited, but its influence cannot;
its body may have bounds, but its soul is infinite. Everywhere is
its manifestation as real, power as effective, presence as actual,
as at the central point. He that studies ponderable bodies alone
is not studying the universe, only its skeleton. Skeletons are
somewhat interesting in themselves, but far more so when covered
with flesh, flushed with beauty, and inspired with soul. The
universe [Page 18] has bones, flesh, beauty, soul, and all is one.
It can be understood only by a study of all its parts, and by
tracing effect to cause.

But how can condensation cause light? Power cannot be quiet. The
mighty locomotive trembles with its own energy. A smitten piece
of iron has all its infinitesimal atoms set in vehement commotion;
they surge back and forth among themselves, like the waves of a
storm-blown lake. Heat is a mode of motion. A heated body commences
a vigorous vibration among its particles, and communicates these
vibrations to the surrounding air and ether. When these vibrations
reach 396,000,000,000,000 per second, the human eye, fitted to be
affected by that number, discerns the emitted undulations, and the