284 Sir William B. Grove [April 20, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, April 20, 1888. 



Edwabd Woods, Esq. M. Inst. C.E. Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Eight. Hon. Sir William R. Grove, M.A. D.CL. LL.D. 

 F.E.S. M.B.L 



Antagonism. 



Some months ago, shortly after I had resigned my office of Judge of 

 the High Court, I was expressing to a friend my fear of the effect 

 of having no compulsory occupation, when he said, by way of con- 

 solation, " Never mind, ' for Satan finds some mischief still for idle 

 hands to do.' " You may possibly in the course of this evening think 

 he was right. 



I have chosen a title for my lecture which may not fully convey 

 to your minds the scope of the views which I am going to submit to 

 you. I propose to adduce some arguments to show that " antagonism," 

 a word generally used to signify something disagreeable, pervades all 

 things ; that it is not the baneful thing which many consider it ; that 

 it produces at least quite as much good as evil ; but that, whatever 

 be its effect, my theory — call it, if you will, speculatioa — is that it is 

 a necessity of existence, and of the organism of the universe so far as 

 we understand it ; that motion and life cannot go on without it ; that 

 it is not a mere casual adjunct of Nature, but that without it there 

 would be no Nature, at all events as we conceive it; that it is 

 inevitably associated with unorganised matter, with organised matter, 

 and with sentient beings. 



I am not aware that this view, in the breadth in which I suggest 

 it, has been advanced before. Probably no idea is new in all respects 

 in the present period of the world's history. It has been said by a 

 desponding pessimist that " There is nothing new, and nothing true, 

 and nothing signifies," but I do not entirely agree with him; I 

 believe that in what I am about to submit there is something new 

 and true in the point of view from which I regard the matter ; whether 

 it signifies or not is for you to judge. 



The universality of antagonism has not received the attention it 

 seems to me to deserve from the fact of the element of force, or rather 

 of the conquering force, being mainly attended to, and too little note 

 taken of the element of resistance unless the latter vanquishes the 

 force, and then it becomes, popularly speaking, the force, and the 

 former force the resistance. 



