A modern Zoroastrian
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| A modern Zoroastrian - Samuel Laing |
The reception given to my former work, on ' Modern Science and Modern Thought,' has induced me to write this further one. I refer not so much to the reviews of professional critics, though as a rule, nothing could be more courteous and candid, but rather to the letters I have received from readers of various ages, and conditions, saying that I had assisted them in understanding much interesting matter which had pre^dously been a sealed book to them.
If I am good at anything, it is for a certain faculty of lucid condensation, and I have thought that I might apply this to some of the less-known branches of modern science, such as the new chemistry and physiology, as well as, in my first work, to the more familiar subjects of astronomy and geology; while at the same time I might extend it to some of the more obvious problems of religion, morals, metaphysics, and practical life, which force themselves, more and more every day, on the attention of intelhgent thinkers.
As in the former work, the scientific speculations were linked together by the leading idea of the universality of law, so, in this, unity is given to them by the all-pervading principle of polarity
Some contents:
experiment with magnet — Principle of polarity — ^ Applies universally — Analogies in the spiritual world — Zoroastrian religion — Changes in a modern environment — require corresponding changes in religions and philosophies 1 CHAPTER II. POLAEITT IN MATTBE — MOLECULES AND ATOMS. Matter consists of molecules — Nature of molecules — Laws of their action in gases — Law of Avogadro — Molecules composed of atoms — Proved by the composition of water — Combinations of atoms — Elementary substances — Qualities of matter depend on atomsDimensions and velocities of molecules and atoms — These are ascertained facts, not theories 9 CHAPTER rn, ETHEE. Ether proved by light— Light- waves — Elasticity of ether — Its universal diffusion— Influences molecules and atoms — Is influenced by them — Successive orders of the infinitely small — Illustrated by the differential and integral calculus — Explanation of this calculus — Theory of vortex rings. . .... 21 CHAPTER IV. ENBEGT. Energy of motion and of position — Energy can be transformed, not created or destroyed— Not created by free-wiU — Conservation of mechanical power — Convertibility of heat and work — Nature of
manifestsLondon, Chapman and Hall
1893