"The Coming Race", Chapter VII, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

pellucid: translucently clear

expatiate: speak or write at length or in detail

$20,000 in 1871 is going to be anywhere between $490K and $66 million. Presumably not the high end, but even half-a-mil is quite the generous campaign contribution! Grant was president in 1871, a time in American politics notorious for its *extreme* corruption...

The comment about Faraday equating mass and energy is fascinating - this story being published in 1871, and Einstein not coming up with E=mc^2 until 1905. Yet, the idea that mass and energy were somehow interrelated goes at least as far back as Newton in 1717, so it was a long time in development and the notion of such a possible link would not have been unknown to those with an interest in physics there in the second half of the 19th century.

Odic force is the name given in 1845 to a hypothetical vital energy or life force by Baron Carl von Reichenbach.

This story was first published in 1871. So when talks about the decay of Europe and the Manifest Destiny attitude of Americans and the Monroe Doctrine (which dates to 1823), do bear in mind the circumstances of the time of the writing.

The picture used is of Michael Faraday performing an electrolysis experiment.

To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0007