MATTER AND ENERGY. 



(Read before the Cincinnati Natural History Society, Sept. 3, 1889. 



Inasmuch as it is illogical to assume that matter 

 was made from nothing, we are forced to believe that 

 it has always existed in some form ; and as matter is 

 never without attributes without activities or en- 

 ergies it is logical to conclude that forces have al- 

 ways been associated with matter. Knowing that 

 such forces are antagonistic, the conclusion can not be 

 avoided that they necessitate motion in matter. The 

 idea that matter may continue at rest is hardly con- 

 ceivable, for inherent energies would enforce activity. 



Matter is capable of assuming a variety of forms ; 

 it may appear as gas, or as liquid, or solid ; and force 

 may be transferred from one activity to another, with- 

 out waste of material or energy. 



Gravitation is one of the inherent energies, and 

 repulsion is another. In their manifestations they ag- 

 gregate matter into masses, and also tend to dissipate 

 substances, and by their opposing influences they cause 

 transformations and transmutations which embrace a 

 history of the universe. 



While the postulate is that matter and power have 

 been eternal, we can not, as finite beings, help looking 

 upon our world as being in a somewhat mature state, 

 with a formative story running backward, and a 

 prospective one foreshadowing decline and ultimate 

 desolation. A basis of the reasoning is that the moon 

 (42) 



