JELL Y GUIDING FORCES. 7 1 



idea of the property or force by virtue of which this jelly, 

 this matter, is enabled to guide forces, and how the pro- 

 perty was acquired. What are the laws which govern it, 

 and how comes it that physical forces obey matter ; what 

 is the nature of the act of guiding spoken of? Does every 

 kind of matter, under certain circumstances, guide forces, 

 or only certain combinations of matter, or only special kinds 

 of matter? Is it due to a mere command that is mys 

 teriously obeyed, or to some repulsion or attraction, or if 

 there be a subtle influence, what is the nature of this, and 

 whence did it come ? Here, as in many other cases, Mr. Hux- 

 ley makes an assertion which he expects his pupils to receive 

 without telling them the grounds he has for making it. 

 No doubt Mr. Huxley feels quite satisfied that what he 

 states is true. He speaks so authoritatively about fact and 

 law (" fact I know, and law I know,") that one scarcely 

 dares to venture to beg for an explanation of anything 

 Mr. Huxley has affirmed. 



But many students ask if Mr. Huxley's " facts" have 

 been confirmed, and are anxious to learn something con- 

 cerning the evidence upon which they are supposed to 

 rest. Why should the idea of jelly guiding forces be a 

 fact of profound significance, and the idea of " vitality ' : 

 acting upon the particles of this jelly, and guiding them 

 and their forces, be a fiction., frivolous, absurd, ridiculous, 

 fanciful, &c. ? Again ; some think that physical forces 

 guide matter, but here we have the new doctrine taught 

 that matter guides physical forces. But it may be that 

 neither matter nor force is capable of guiding or directing 

 force or matter. 



