Before passing on to the more practical generalizations to be drawn from the suggestions contained in this chapter, I may advert to an objection sometimes brought by the sceptical in this matter.  They say:  “How is it that apparitions are always seen in the dark?” and then they answer their own question by saying, it is because superstitious people are nervous in the dark and imagine all sorts of things.  Then they laugh and think they have disposed of the whole subject.  But it is not disposed of quite so easily, for not only are there many well attested cases of such appearances in broad daylight, but there are also scientific facts, showing that if we are right in explaining such happenings by etheric action, such action is more readily produced at night than in the presence of sunlight.

In the early part of 1902 Marconi made some experiments on board the American liner Philadelphia, which brought out the remarkable fact that, while it was possible to transmit signals to a distance of fifteen hundred miles during the night, they could not be transmitted further than seven hundred miles during the day.  The same was found to be the case by Lieutenant Solari of the Italian Navy, at whose disposal the ship Carlo Alberta was placed by the King of Italy in 1902, for the purpose of making investigations into wireless telegraphy; and summing up the points which he considered to have been fully established by his experiments on board that ship, he mentions among them the fact, that sunlight has the effect of reducing the power of the electro-magnetic waves, and that consequently a greater force is required to produce a given result by day than by night.  Here, then, is a reason why we might expect to see more supernatural appearances, as we call them, at night than in the day—­they require a smaller amount of force to produce them.  At the same time, it is found that the great magnetic waves which cover immense distances, work even more powerfully in the light than in the dark.  May it not be that these things show, that there is more than a merely metaphorical use of words, when the Bible tells us of the power of Light to dissipate, and bring to naught, the powers of Darkness, while the Light itself is the Great Power, using the forces of the universe on the widest scale?  Perhaps it is none other than the continuity of unchanging universal principles extending into the mysterious realms of the spiritual world.

CHAPTER III

MAN’S PLACE IN THE CREATIVE ORDER

In the preceding chapters we have found certain definite facts,—­that all known matter is formed out of one primordial Universal Substance,—­that the ether spreading throughout limitless space is a Universal Medium, through which it is possible to convey force by means of vibrations,—­and that vibrations can be started by the power of Sound.  These we have found to be well established facts of ordinary science, and taking them as our starting-point, we may now begin to speculate as to the possible workings of the known laws under unknown conditions.