Clifton College Scientijlc Society. 49 



Xow this matter, existing as it does, in a variety of forms, inorganic 

 and organic, simple and compound, is subject to the influence of 

 certain forces, which forces determine the condition of the material 

 atoms, their combination, their aggregation into masses, their jjosition 

 in space, and again, tlie separation of comj^ounds into their constituent 

 eleuients, and the changes from one condition to another. In a word, 

 all the material atoms of which the great kosmos is built up are under 

 the control of force. 



The names by which the various modes of force are known will 

 immediately occur to you. — Heat, hght, chemical action, electricity, 

 magnetism, gravitation, and the vital force — life. Of the last 

 mentioned force I shall say but little, but will remind you of the 

 vast amount of work wrought by this agency, on the smface of the 

 ear til. 



This vital force, this living power, this prerogative of Deity, is 

 to our minds, perhaps the strongest evidence aad manifestation of 

 continuous creative power. 



By the agency of life, all organic nature is built up from material 



atoms, which, by its plastic, iormative power, are assimilated into 



those myi'iad forms of vegetable and animal life which exist around us. 



To this agency is also due all that will and muscular energy 



accomplish in the world. 



From the diatom, which does not ask the millionth of an inch to 

 exist in, to the giant tree of the tropical forest — from the protococcus 

 nivalis, of Alpine snows, to the most gorgeous of exotic flowers — 

 ft-om the monad to the man, the whole surface of the globe teems 

 with life, and its solid crust speaks of the existence of life-created 

 forms in the remote past. 



In speaking of the forces of nature, I must beg you to remember, 

 that they are invisible agents, and are only rendered apparent to our 

 senses by the conduct of matter under their influence. Thus, we 

 cannot see motion, we can only see a body in motion. If we place 

 a few billiard balls close together in a line, and give a sharp blow to 

 the outside ball at one end, the outside ball at the other end of the 

 row will be driven off, the intermediate balls remaining stationary. 

 The force has been communicated through each ball, through each 

 particle of each ball in the line of force, and the existence of the 

 force is made evident to our senses by the movement of the last ball 

 only. 



Again, we cannot see gravitation, we cannot see magnetism, we 

 cannot see light, I need not remind you that when a sunbeam enters 

 a dark room, through a hole in the shutter, it illuminates the dust or 

 vapour floating about that room. The moon is seen by the light of 

 the sun reflected from it, but where the moon is not, we see nothing, 

 although, beyond the shadow projected by the earth, there is the 

 full blaze of sunlight radiating into space. 



Keep tlien distinctly before you this evening two ideas : matter, 

 force. ]\ratter, that which is acted upon. Force, the agent acting 

 upon material atoms. 



