"If the multitude of so-called laws of nature could be resolved into one grand universal law, would it not be considered a great step in the progress of scientific knowledge? This is what our pioneer [Keely] claims for his discoveries, one law working throughout nature, in all things; for, as Macvicar says, the productive and conservative agency in creation, as it exists and acts does not consist of two things, "idea" and "power"; but of a unity embracing both, for which there is no special name. The relation between the Creator and the Creation, the First Cause and what he has effected, is altogether inscrutable; but intelligence acting analytically, as it cannot be kept from doing, insists on these two elements in the problem, viz. idea and power.
"The law of the universe is a distinct dualism while the creative energies are at work; and of a compound union when at rest."
"The hypothesis that motion can only be effected mechanically, by pressure or traction or contact of some kind, is an utterly helpless one to explain even familiar movements. Gravitation itself, the grandest and most prevailing phenomenon of the material universe, has set all genius at defiance when attempting to conceive a mechanism which might account for it. The law of sympathetic association, or sympathetic assimilation, between two or more atoms, or masses of atoms, explains this grand phenomenon; but Roscoe, in theorizing on the atomic theory, says that from purely chemical considerations it appears unlikely the existence of atoms will ever be proved. It never could have been proved by mechanical physics nor by chemistry. The law which locks the atoms together would have remained an unknown law, had not Keely opened the door leading into one of nature's domains which was never entered before, unless by the fabled Orpheus, who, mythology tells us, was killed because he revealed to man, what the gods wished to conceal. Certainly, whether Orpheus ever existed or not, the principle which Pythagoras promulgated as the teaching of Orpheus is disclosed in one of Keely's discoveries.
"In the great fresco of the school of Athens, by Raphael, Pythagoras is represented as explaining to his pupils his theory that the same principle underlies the harmonies of music and the motion of heavenly bodies. One of these pupils holds in his hand a tablet, shaped like a zither, on which are inscribed the Greek words. Diapason, Diapente, Diatessaron. Of the diapason, or concord of all, Spenser writes, in The Faerie Queen:
Nine was the circle set in heaven's place,
All which compacted made a goodly diapase.
"Here we have a clue to the Thirds, Sixths and Ninths of Keely's theories, in the operations of his polar negative attractor. The conception of the Pythagoreans of music, as the principle of the creation's order, and the mainstay and supporter of the material world, is strictly in accordance with the marvelous truths which are now being unfolded to science. Rightly divined Browning when he wrote of
. . . music's mystery, which mind fails
To fathom; its solution no mere clue;
"and Cardinal Newman also, when he discoursed of musical sounds, "under which great wonders unknown to us seem to have been typified," as "the living law of divine government." Since the days of Leucippus, poets and philosophers have often touched upon the mysteries hidden in sound, which are now being revealed in the experimental researches of Keely. These truths make no impression on those who are not gifted with any comprehension of nature's harmonious workings, and are regarded as flights of fancy and of rhetoric. Among the utterances of inspiration - and all truth is inspired - one of the most remarkable, when taken in connection with these discoveries, is found in these eloquent words of the Dean of Boston University in his "Review of Herbert Spencer," printed in 1876:
"Think of the universal warring of tremendous forces which is for ever going on, and remember that out of this strife is born, not chaos, void and formless, but a creation of law and harmony. Bear in mind, too, that this creation is filled with the most marvelous mechanisms, with the most exquisite contrivances, and with forms, of the rarest beauty. Remember, also, that the existence of these forms for even a minute depends upon the nicest balance of destructive forces. Abysses of chaos yawn on every side, and yet creation holds on its way. Nature's keys need but to be jarred to turn the tune into unutterable discord, and yet the harmony is preserved. Bring hither your glasses - and see that, from atomic recess to the farthest depth, there is naught but 'toil co-operant to an end.' All these atoms move to music; all march in tune. Listen until you catch the strain, and then say whether it is credible that a blind force should originate and maintain all this."
Sir John Herschel said:- "There is some principle in the science of music that has yet to be discovered."
"It is this principle which has been discovered by Keely. Let his theories be disputed as they have been, and as they still may be, the time has come in which his supporters claim that he is able to demonstrate what he teaches; is able to show how superficial are the foundations of the strongholds to which physicists are clinging; and able to prove purity of conditions in physical science which not even the philosophers and poets of the past have so much as dreamed of in their hours of inspiration.
. . . . . ways are made,
Burdens are lifted, or are laid,
By some great law unseen and still,
Unfathomed purpose to fulfill.
"Our materialistic physicists, our Comtist and agnostic philosophers, have done their best to destroy our faith.
"Of him who will not believe in Soul because his scalpel cannot detect it, Browning wrote:
To know of, think about-
Is all man's sum of faculty effects,
When exercised on earth's least atom.
What was, what is, what may such atoms be?-
Unthinkable, unknowable to man.
Yet, since to think and know fire through and through
Exceeds man, is the warmth of fire unknown?
Its uses - are they so unthinkable?
Pass from such obvious power to powers unseen,
Undreamed of save in their sure consequence:
Take that we spoke of late, which draws to ground
The staff my hand lets fall; it draws at least -
Thus much man thinks and knows, if nothing more.
"These lines were written in reference to Keely's discovery of the infinite subdivision of the atom; for not until a much later period was Browning influenced by a New York journalist to look upon Keely as "a modern Cagliostro." Keely's discovery was the keynote of "Ferishtah's Fancies," written by Browning before he met this journalist.
"Professor Koening writes:- "I have long given up the idea of understanding the Universe; with a little insight into its microcosm. I would feel quite satisfied; as every day it becomes more puzzling."
"But there are no boundaries set to knowledge in the life of the soul, and these discoveries reach out so far towards the Infinite, that we are led by them to realize how much there is left for science to explore in the supposed unfathomable depths of the etheric domain, whence proceeds the influence that connects us with that infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed.
"The attitude of willingness to receive truths, of whatever nature, now manifested by men of science in regard to Keely's experimental research, is shared by all who are not "wise in their own conceit." They stand ready to welcome, while waiting for proof, the discovery of Darwin's grand-niece, Mrs. F. J. Hughes, as now demonstrated by Keely, viz., that the laws which develop and control harmonies, develop and control the universe; and they will rejoice to be convinced (as Keely teaches) that all corpuscular aggregation absorbs energy, holding it latent in its embrace until liberated by a certain order of vibration; that nature does not aggregate one form of matter under one law, and another form of matter under another law. When this has been demonstrated, to their entire satisfaction, they will acknowledge that Faraday's speculations on the nature of force and matter pointed the way to Keely's discoveries. Some broad-minded men have been pursuing lines of research which give evidence of their desire to solve the problem for themselves as to the mode of rupturing the atom, which science declare to be indivisible." [Keely and His Discoveries, Chapter XVIII, Part II, A Pioneer in an Unknown Realm]