a beautiful phrase. It belongs peculiarly to the style of speech which the President of the United States has affected, and of which we admit that he has become a master.

"Given the vitality of public law!" Why should not the chief magistrate of the Republic say in the English language what he means? His meaning is that the purpose of the man whom he appointed Secretary of the Treasury to secure the final abrogation of the bimetallic system of money in the United States and the substitution therefor of gold monometallism pure and simple shall be enacted by Congress into the statute of the nation. He means that the goldite conspiracy to compel the American people to transact their business, and in particular to pay their debts, according to the measurement of gold only shall be by Congress made into law, final and irrevocable, ultimate and irreversible. But instead of saying this the President declares that the "purpose of the people shall be given the vitality of public law." This phrase sufficed for the banqueters, and it was easily understood by them. is also easily understood by all those who concern themselves with the money question and its correlative themes. Otherwise the phraseology presented might be regarded as a mumble of mysterious words.

It

The real Nemesis of this world is History. The National Manufacturers' Association supposed that they were doing something and saying something at the Waldorf-Astorian revel that would prove historical. They congratulated themselves that they were making history. As a matter of fact they were only making sport for the smileless Power that governs the world. They vainly imagined that they were able to control the onward march. They thought, no doubt, that the nation would be moved by the spectacle of a banquet with a thousand magnates sitting for five hours at fifteen-dollar plates. They supposed, no doubt, that the forced and prescribed utterances of the President of the United States would change somewhat the course of the human tides. They may have cherished the delusion that his speech of platitudes would affect the action of the Senate of the United States on the pending resolution of Senator Teller. They may have believed that the American people would turn from their im

THE CONFESSIONS OF A SCIENTIST.

A

BY CHARLES MELVILLE SHEPHERD.

NUMBER of years ago, when I was preacher in a South

ern university, I heard a lecture which awakened much local interest. It was one of a course given by a great scientist, but I cannot recall his theme or much of the treatment. He held that society is drawing near to a flood-time of thought, like the age of Pericles, the Christian era, or the Renascence. It would begin with physical discovery, possibly a new conception of ethereal vibration, but its climax would be in the ethical life of man. Industry and transportation would first be revolutionized, war would be abolished, the problems of to-day would be history, and the globe would be like a well-tilled estate. Then the mystery-loving soul of man would turn finally to the undiscovered regions of the psychic universe. We shall measure the growth of character, we shall print the image of the soul, and education will become an exact science. The end will be an ineffable pageantry, the triumph of the diviner part of man. Unselfishness, purity of heart, and righteousness will at last have their coronation day.

As the students thronged out into the corridor I noticed that one man, a Georgian named Martin, remained in his seat absorbed in thought. Having some acquaintance with him I spoke as I passed. He made no reply for a moment, then looking up, said, "I shall follow that clew."

́Five years later, when I had almost forgotten the incident, a message came from a hospital stating that a sick man wished to see me. Going to the place, I had difficulty in recognizing my student friend, Martin. He was manifestly in an advanced stage of some wasting disease.

"I have sent for you," said he, "because I recall your sympathy in former days. I shall die easier if I disclose the secrets of my life and leave a message with you."

Upon my assurance that I would serve him, he continued:

which

"Do you recall that last lecture of Professor Dwas so much talked of at the time? Well, it has shaped my career and, in a way, has brought me to this pass. After leaving the University I spent two years in Germany and another year in a great laboratory at New York. Having come into a fair patrimony, I felt prepared to enter upon independent research. I cannot describe to you the absorption of the next few years. Every hour and every energy were devoted to one idea. My postulate was that all physical energy depends on ethereal vibration. The human body is a mechanism exquisitely contrived to receive and transmit universal waves of a certain range. But the gamut of material experiences is only a fragment of the diapason of life. All that we know and feel in the body is as a span measured on the sun's orbit. It seemed a reasonable hypothesis that vibration is also the medium of energy in the transcendent life of the soul; for all we know points that way. In the one observed case of a soul in the spiritual mode, which is that of our Lord, there is no apparent deviation from the law. The spiritual body continued to be an instrument sensitive to vibrations, but apparently those of vastly greater range than we know anything about. It is significant that all our knowledge of the Infinite is conveyed in terms of harmonious motion. The ether, then, is a medium responsive to every pulsation of the divine life, and finite existences are receivers of varying capacities. Matter intercepts a few vibrations, animal bodies receive many more and have an indefinite potency of evolution, while pure spirits are organs of universal range. Death is the breaking down of a barrier between the lower and higher capacity. Now we know that even in the bodily mode the soul continually acts beyond the range of the physical, and the whole even of the earthly life is the sum of the physical and the psychic. Man's total existence at any moment may be likened to a ship, if we may suppose the sails to be hidden by a screen. Part of the hull is under water, and the canvas is out of sight. Nevertheless we know that what we see is one with what we do not see, and that the whole moves together. The great end in the view of the investigator is to find some means of receiving psychic vibrations. That accomplished, we can test

character as we now test the action of the heart or lungs, and the soul's ensemble can be recorded on a sensitive plate. Endlessly observing and experimenting, I at length stumbled on the truth. You will find all the details set forth in my journals, which I shall leave in your care, together with the apparatus in my laboratory."

Mr. Martin was now visibly fatigued, and the nurse, coming forward, begged that he make no further effort that day. At my next visit I found him in a comatose state, and it was but a few days later that we buried the mortal part of my friend. In due time his apparatus and papers came into my hands, and this account is continued from his notebooks. I have omitted a great deal of primary experimentation and much that appeared to have only a technical interest. Doubtless all will one day be sifted and prepared for publication. I also leave out the dates, as of no immediate importance, and as interfering with the continuity of the narrative.

"To-day saw the last touches put to my psychic mechanism. Now for some practical tests. I do not have much fear of failure; the preliminary induction has been too thorough. I believe that I have shown the existence of psychic waves. At the altitude of ten thousand feet in a balloon, my recording instrument reveals two systems of waves, the one sweeping down toward the earth, the other radiating from it, and neither in any way connected with known physical energy. If placed in position between an orator of high power and his audience, the instrument exhibits violent oscillations, and indicates different orders of vibrations originating in the mass of people and in the speaker. In the midst of the Nevada desert. I found that the vibrations are comparatively few and simple; while in the vicinity of a populous city they are many and complex. If now I can isolate the vibrations from a person and obtain an image from them, the last link in the chain of induction will be assured..

"To-day brought me my first successful personal test. I had a long conversation with Senator P., and used my new individualizing device, meanwhile plying him with more questions than a professional interviewer. He talked at great length of