"There are several kinds of emanations from radium. Photographs
similar to those produced by the Roentgen ray tube and induction
coil can be got by means of the emanations from a small quantity of
radium. I took a screen made of zincblende, which will phosphoresce
when the emanations of radium fall upon it. I then painted upon it,
in a solution of radium, the word 'Radium.' In the dark this screen
(about three inches by four inches) gives off sufficient light to
read by. But the most striking way of showing the emanations is by
the little contrivance I call a Spinthariscope. In this a zinc
sulphide screen is fitted at the end of a short brass tube, with a
speck of radium about a millimeter away from it. Looking in the
dark through the lens at the other end one sees a regular
bombardment of the screen by the emanations. The phenomena of
radium require us to recast many of our ideas of matter,
electricity, and energy, and its discovery promises to realize what
for the last hundred years have been but day-dreams of philosophy.
"Although the fact of emission of heat by radium is in itself
sufficiently remarkable, this heat is probably only a small portion
of the energy radium is constantly sending into space. It is at the
same time hurling off material particles which reveal their impact
on a screen by luminous scintillations. Stop these by a glass or
mica screen, and torrents of Roentgen rays still pour out from a
few milligrams of radium salt in quantity to exhibit to a company
all the phenomena of Roentgen rays, and with energy enough to
produce a nasty blister on the flesh, if kept near it for an hour."
It is hardly possible to contemplate this remarkable element in the
world of nature without recognizing its correspondence in the world of
spirit. If an element radiates perpetual light, heat, and power with no
loss of its own inherent energy, so the spirit can radiate love,
sympathy, sweetness, and inspiration with no diminution of its own
quality. Science may be unable to recognize the medium from which
radium is fed; but religion recognizes the medium from which the spirit
draws its sustenance in the power of God. The human will merged in the
divine will is invincible. There is no ideal of life which it may not
realize, and this realization is in the line of the inevitable and is
experienced with the unerring certainty of a mathematical demonstration.
Yet, when one comes to examine the actual average attitude of humanity
toward this subject of the divine will, one finds it is largely that of
a mere gloomy and enforced resignation, even at its best, and, at its
worst, of distrust and rebellion to the will of God. It seems to be held
as the last resort of desperation and despair, rather than as the one
abounding source of all joy and success and achievement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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