WISLIZENUS — THOUGHTS ON MATTER AND FORCE. 299 



Thoughts on Matter and 'Force. 

 By A. Wislizekus, M. D. 



All the atomic substances in nature, that fall under the 

 observation of our senses, we call matter; and certain constant 

 actions and motions of matter are called forces. Matter and 

 force exist in such a state of combination that we cannot 

 separate them, except in abstracto. From this_ impossibility 

 of separation, the materialists deduce their belief in matter 

 alone, while the dynamists claim the supremacy of force. It 

 seems to me most rational, to assume an original combina- 

 tion of the two. In what manner that happened, is as 

 incomprehensible to human understanding as any other act 

 of creation. Man was not invited into the laboratory of 

 nature, but she kindly allows him to study her works, when 

 finished, and to admire their form and wise design. We 

 have to be contented, therefore, with created things as we 

 find them, although their origin will forever be a mystery to 

 us. We must be satisfied with the fact, that Ave meet at 

 every step with such a combination of matter and force, that 

 a certain dualism exists throughout nature, and that the law 

 of polarity is one of the highest in the Universe. In things 

 more sensual we are not so scrupulous as to deny a combina- 

 tion of two opposites, although we cannot separate them. 

 Who, for instance, would deny the two poles of a magnet, 

 or of a galvanic battery, although we cannot bring one pole 

 into action without the other, and can never actually sepa- 

 rate them ? A separation of matter and force in abstracto 

 seems to be a logical necessity, without which the laws of 

 nature cannot be investigated, and has, therefore, been 

 generally adopted by natural philosophers from the most 

 ancient times to the present. 



Matter and force are subject to general laws, common to 

 both. One of them is, that both matter and force are inde- 

 structible, imperishable, everlasting, eternal ; but their forms 

 are constantly changing from simple to compound, and 

 vice versa. 



The quantity of matter and force on our globe is the same 

 now as ever, although its forms are constantly changing, 

 bein" - never entirely at rest, always in action or re-action, 

 composing or decomposing, destroying or building up. In 

 regard to matter ample proof of this has been furnished by 

 chemistry. In regard to force the same opinion has pre- 

 vailed for a long time, but the proof positive was, on account 

 of the less sensual nature of the subject, more difficult. But 



[July 27, 1865.] 20 



