Ill REFORMED CONCEPT OF MATTER 51 



my aim in this chapter is to pave the way for a reform of the 

 concept of matter, to break down the old concept of matter 

 as something inert, passive, barren, dead, as something with 

 absolute contours and nothing beyond, as something present- 

 ing an impassable barrier to the kingdoms of life and mind 

 beyond. This cannot be done by general philosophical 

 reflections on the nature of matter as an object of thought, 

 nor by launching a general invective against it, but only by a 

 careful consideration of the concept of matter by the light 

 of all the available physical knowledge. This must be my 

 excuse for having referred to the Relativity Theory and the 

 New Physics at some length. Certain general results emerge 

 from our discussion which have an important bearing on the 

 concept of matter. 



In the first place, the old concept of matter as dead, pas- 

 sive, inert is clearly inconsistent with the recent develop- 

 ments of physical science. The old contradictory notion of 

 dead matter as the vehicle and carrier of life must disappear 

 in the light of our new knowledge. The difference between 

 matter and life is no longer measured by the distance between 

 deadness or absolute passivity on the one hand, and activity 

 on the other — a distance so great as to constitute an impass- 

 able gulf in thought. The difference between them is merely 

 a difference in the character of their activities. So far from 

 matter being pure inertia or passivity, it is in reality a mass 

 of seething, palpitating energies and activities. Its very 

 dead-weight simply means the push of inner activities. Its I 

 inertia, which is apparently its most distinctive quality and / 

 has been consecrated by Newton in his First Law, has re- , 

 ceived its death-blow at the hands of Einstein. From the 

 new point of view the inertia of matter is simply the result of 

 the movement of Nature's internal energies; its apparent pas-i 

 sivity is merely the other side of its real activity. Matter! 

 itself is nothing but concentrated structural energy, energy 

 stereotyped into structure. As space contracts with velocity, 

 so mass or the inertia of matter increases through that con- 

 traction, and both the mass of matter and its quality of 

 inertia or passiveness are therefore mere variable dependent 



