180
DOC.
38
ETHER AND RELATIVITY
22
SIDELIGHTS
ON
RELATIVITY
nature
might just
as
well
have endowed the
gravitational
ether
with
fields of
quite
another
type,
for
example,
with
fields of
a
scalar
potential,
instead
of fields of
the
[28]
electromagnetic type.
Since
according
to
our
present
concep-
tions the
elementary particles
of matter
are
also,
in their
essence, nothing
else
than
condensations
of
the
electromagnetic field,
our
present
view
of
the
universe
presents
two
realities which
are completely
separated
from each other
conceptually, although
connected
causally, namely,
gravitational
ether and
electromagnetic field,
or-as
they
might
also be
called-space
and
matter.
Of
course
it
would be
a
great
advance if
we
could succeed in
comprehending
the
gravitational
field
and
the
electromagnetic
field
together
as one
unified conformation.
Then for
the
first time
the
epoch
of
theor-
etical
physics
founded
by
Faraday
and
Maxwell would reach
a
satisfactory
con-
clusion. The contrast between
ether and
matter would fade
away,
and, through
the
general
theory
of
relativity,
the
whole of