ON THE ORIGIN OF FORCE. 473 



in what manner, or by what mechanism, they are propa- 

 gated from one body to another; and how their mutual 

 interconversion is effected. In referring them to the 

 action of dynamical force upon matter, and in getting 

 rid of the " imponderables " (other than the luminiferous 

 ether) we are at length fairly entered on the construction 

 of a theory of their phsenomena, in what, as above re- 

 marked, must be considered the true acceptation of that 

 term in physics : and once satisfied that dynamical force 

 itself is a phasnomenon sui generis ; that it is not a result 

 of collision an educt from the duahty Inertia and 

 Motion ; one of those correlatives, in short, to which 

 the epithet " Physical forces" has of late been so gene- 

 rally, and, in my opinion, so very improperly applied, we 

 have reached the point where theory ends and specula- 

 tion begins, where we cease to inquire into the causes 

 of phaenomena, and direct our consideration thencefor- 

 ward to their reasons. 



(12.) The universe presents us with an assemblage of 

 phsenomena, physical, vital, and intellectual the con- 

 necting link between the worlds of intellect and matter 

 being that of organized vitality, occupying the whole 

 domain of animal and vegetable life, throughout whicK 

 in some way inscrutable to us, movements among the 

 molecules of matter are originated of such a character as 

 apparently to bring them under the control of an agency 

 other than physical,* superseding the ordinary laws 



* Take for instance the formative iiisus, wliich determines tlie 

 production of a supernumerary finger in the human hand. Here is 

 110 gradual change from generation to generation, no first de-velop* 



