The more familiar one is with the details of some lines of human investigation, the more he is impressed with the aptness of Mrs. Eddy's views on that phase of thought as brought out in the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." This has been my experience, as a physicist, when reading the definition of electricity on page 293 of this book: "Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality which counterfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth,—the great difference being that electricity is not intelligent, while spiritual truth is Mind."

About a century ago electricity was considered to be a fluid which passed from one body to another, and if a body possessed more than the normal amount, it was regarded as positively electrified, but if less, as negatively electrified. Electricity was therefore not regarded as the real substance of a body, but rather as a fluid possessed by it. This was the view generally held when Mrs. Eddy wrote, "Electricity is not a vital fluid," as we read on the page above referred to. After the discovery of radium in 1898, the study of the construction of the atom was greatly stimulated, since the radium atom was found to be in process of disintegration,—a phenomenon at variance with the former theory of the indestructibility of the atom. As a result of this study, atoms are now considered to be minute solar systems, each having for its nucleus, or sun, a positive charge of electricity, and for its planets electrons, or negative charges of electricity, circling with velocities in the order of one hundred thousand miles a second around this nucleus.

According to this theory there are myriads of these little solar systems in every drop of water and in every grain of sand, and when they are undisturbed and in a state of equilibrium, no electrical phenomena are observed. Atoms differ in the number and arrangement of their electrons, and in some substances they have a stronger hold on their electrons than is the case with other substances; again, there are substances having atoms prone to pick up stray electrons. Thus, catskin gives up some electrons with comparative ease, while hard rubber clings to its own and picks up others. Rub these two substances together and the hard rubber will rob the catskin of electrons, and thus having more than its normal number, will exhibit negative electrification; that is, when touched by the hand it will give off its excess of electrons, which we see or feel as a spark of electricity. The catskin, being deficient in electrons, will exhibit positive electrification; that is, when touched by the hand, electrons will pass from the hand to it as a spark of electricity. The rubbing had disturbed and loosened some of the electrons of the catskin and they were picked up by the atoms of the hard rubber.

A more vivid illustration of the "sharp surplus" may be observed during a thunder-storm. Nature seems always to tend to maintain equilibrium; when a cloud which has a large surplus of electrons and is thus in an unstable state, approaches another cloud which is relatively deficient in electrons, there is a sharp passage of these electric charges from the former toward the latter, in the effort to restore equilibrium, and we see the flash of lightning. At present, therefore, matter is regarded as made of electricity rather than merely possessing it, as was generally held by physicists until recently. This accords with Mrs. Eddy's statement made long before, "Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality;" that is, the phenomenon of electrification is matter with an excess of its essence present, and this essence "counterfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth," being non-intelligent, while "spiritual truth is Mind."

A field of influence called an electric field is present in the medium surrounding an electron. This field is a region of strain in the ether, and a force is exerted on electric charges which happen to be present in it. When a normal number of electrons are collected about the nucleus of an atom, the resultant field beyond the limits of the atom is neutralized, but an excess of charges in the atoms of a body disturbs this balance, and the body then electrified is surrounded with an electric field. In this case the electric field is between bodies oppositely charged, and these bodies if free to move will drift into contact and the charges be neutralized; if held apart, the air between will be in a state of strain, that is, the electrons of the atoms of the air will be urged to break with the atoms, and will do so if the strain is great enough, when equilibrium will be restored by the passage of electricity. Thus, wherever this "sharp surplus of materiality" is present there is a strain or abnormal condition in all the surrounding region.

This "surplus of materiality" is shown also in another recent finding of the physicist. Circling between astronomical solar systems are comets which do not belong to any particular system but wander from one system to another. In the same way, between atomic systems circle electrons which are not attached to any particular atom but wander from one atom to another. They are called "free electrons," and the extent to which they are present in a substance determines the degree of the electrical conductivity of the substance. Thus the metals, being good conductors of electricity, are rich in free electrons; while glass, rubber, and air possess practically none. The drift of these free electrons in a substance, as in a wire when placed in an electrical field (in a battery circuit), constitutes an electric current. The exhibition of electrical phenomenon (the electric current) is thus again due to excess of materiality (the free electrons).

But all this beautiful framework to explain the presence of matter is merely a more or less clearly defined concept in the mind of the physicist, who seeks to grasp the meaning of the truth he dimly sees and who regards his present sense of it as very transient, for he well knows that tomorrow, through his efforts to gain more light, his concept is bound to change. He has reduced the old concept that matter is solid, to the new concept that matter is vibrating electric charges or forces, "the least material form of illusive consciousness," as we again read on page 293 of Science and Health. The next step seems to be that this "least material form of illusive consciousness" must yield to the truth that "the universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be understood; but when explained on the basis of physical sense and represented as subject to growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, and must continue to be, an enigma" (Science and Health, p. 124).

Thus the human mind, being overcharged with a surplus of erroneous concepts, will in the presence of the truth of being, the truth that makes free, be discharged; the error will be neutralized by the dawning of spiritual understanding, be reduced to nothingness, even as the Bible teaches, and man will then be seen in his normal and stable state, the idea of divine Mind.

Copyright, 1916, by The Christian Science Publishing Society