128 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. lxii. 



This great idea was contraveited, and supposed to be 

 refuted, and only this year it has been again proclaimed 

 by thinkers, such as Professor Cruni Brown, and Professor 

 Japp. The inferences one may draw are far reaching. 

 Joules's great thought, the conservation of energy, has long 

 been accepted by all. We believe that physical energy in 

 the universe is a constant, never more and never less; just 

 as we believe that its vehicle or plaything, matter, is a 

 constant, never more and never less. What then must we 

 say about life, and its vehicle, optically active matter ? 

 We know that in early geologic times, there was probably 

 no life, certainly very little; probably no thought, certainly 

 very little ; probably n"o optically active matter, certainly 

 very little. It follows, therefore, that life and thought can 

 have nothing to do with energy, for energy has not, and 

 cannot have, either increased or diminished, since life and 

 thought came into existence. Energy has, humanly speak- 

 ing, no beginning and no end. Life and thought have 

 begun on earth, and may end ; have increased, and may 

 decrease. If all the human race, and all animals and 

 plants, were to perish, the earth might go on revolving 

 round tlie sun, as it did befoi-e life and thought began, and 

 the amount of energy in the univei'se would be the same 

 as it is now. It is quite possible that tliere is no life or 

 thought in the sun, the moon, Venus, or Mars, yet matter 

 is the vehicle of energy tliere, as it is here. 



It may be said that the vital force is only energy trans- 

 formed, but no one has ever seen motion, or heat, or 

 electricity transformed into life. 



No one has ever seen spontaneous generation. 



Life has the power of storing up energy in its vehicle, 

 optically active matter; there the energy lies latent, and 

 can be retransformed, by the vital force, from latent into 

 visilile energy. 



Thought has also the power of stamping on its vehicle, 

 the optically active matter, what it will, and of reading 

 what it has written there. 



Xo doubt energy also has an action on the brain fibres, 

 for energy rules all matter ; but in certain kinds of matter, 

 thought also rules. 



F<u- many years past, men have failed to notice this. 



