54 Dr. Macticae's Adaptation of the Philosophy of 



sophy of common sense ; for this philosophy demands, in reference to 

 everything that represents reality, that it shall have respect both to 

 substance and attribute — being and action. It is to this that 1 have at 

 last succeeded in reducing the hypothesis, of which the first hnes are 

 now to be unfolded. 



The one fact which I build on as Substance, or Matei-ial, is that 

 which is given by the history of philosophy as the catholic belief 

 of the observing and reflecting men of all refined ages and nations, 

 namely, the universal £ether or medium of light. And respecting its inti- 

 mate nature and constitution I postulate nothing but that when exist- 

 ing in a state of rest it consists of individualized particles existing 

 apart, though somehow touching each other. . In this respect aU that 

 follows is nothing more than the working out of an answer in the affir- 

 mative to Newton's query, when he asks in his latest scientific pubHca- 

 tion, " Are not gross bodies and light convertible into each other ? 

 . . . . The changing of light into bodies, and of bodies into light, 

 is very conformable to the course of nature, which seems delighted with 

 transformations."— (Op«., 2d edit., 1718, qu. 3U.) It wUl be observed, 

 however, that I borrow no less from Leibnitz and from Boscovich than 

 from Newton, while it is only since the atomic theory of Dalton under 

 some form or other has been pursued to the extent that it has, and 

 given those definite conceptions of molecular quantities and functions 

 which now prevail, that such a hypothesis as that now entered upon 

 has become possible, at least as a speculation in positive science, capable 

 of being verified or of being rejected. 



The o>t: laav which I build upon is that which has been already 

 hinted as the law of causal continuity or resemblance. Borrowing a 

 name for it from that case of its operation, by which our food is digested 

 and our life is maintained from hour to hour, we may designate it the 

 Law of Assimilation, and it may be thus laid down: — 



r themselves to themselves in successive mo- 



r J ments of their existence, 2. e., to maintain their 



I tj-pes or species, under influences tending to 



I [^ cause a departure from them ; as also — 



All things tend to assimilate { 



I r all other things to themselves (and conse- 



I I quently to be assimilated to these others in 



I II- \ their turn), i. e., to group species and types 



"^ I into genera and families, and to give general 



L harmony to nature. 



Of this law it may be shown that all the characteristic phenomena of 

 the intellectual and moral sphere are manifestations, to the full extent 

 that they are manifestations of law at all, and not of a self-possessed 



