278 LESSONS FKOM NATDKE. [CHAI-. VIII. 



And this latter view may be disputed by considerations similar 

 to those put forward by Mr. Lewies. That writer says :* 



&quot; What is the plain inference from sensible experience ? It is that 

 both oxygen and hydrogen have in combination lost all their specific 

 qualities, and have acquired new qualities. They have not only lost 

 that amount of molecular agitation which kept them in their gaseous 

 state, they have lost those qualities, or modes of reaction, which dis 

 tinguished them from other gases and solids. The oxygen will not now 

 oxidize, the hydrogen will not flame. If this is not destruction, 

 destruction has no meaning ; if this is not change, nothing is change 

 able. Theory declares that the oxygen has not changed; and fact 

 declares that the oxygen has utterly changed. Theory infers that 

 oxygen is indestructible, in spite of the fact that oxygen has been 

 destroyed The surprising recovery of all the original cha 

 racters, after the clement has undergone a multiplicity of changes 

 destructive of those characters, is supposed to prove that what is thus 

 recovered could not have been lost. Hence the conclusion is drawn 

 that throughout its apparent changes the clement has really preserved 

 its integrity. But looked at closely it is seen that all which remains 

 the same is the possibility of restoration .... that what is now 

 lost will reappear whenever the requisite conditions of its appearance 

 are restored. The house will reappear when the bricks are re-arranged.&quot; 



This is, once more, exactly the scholastic philosophy ; form 

 or force passes from the active condition (&quot;in actu&quot;) to the 

 condition of possibility (&quot;in potentia&quot;) to re -emerge in act, 

 simultaneously with the acquisition by matter of the condition 

 proximate for its manifestation. 



We may here shortly survey the ground we have as yet 

 traversed. The course we have already pursued has 



Conclusion. 



shown us that in each of us there energizes a force 

 which feels, thinks, remembers and wills that expresses its 

 thoughts by external signs, can perceive amongst its percep 

 tions moral worth, and is essentially the same in all men. 

 Secondly, we have recognised that outside us really exists an 

 external world, part of which consists of individual, active 

 wholes concrete unities, which live (as all plants), or which 

 live and feel (as the dog and the bee), or which live, feel, and 

 also think (as man). We have also seen that the force which 



* Problems of Life nnd Miial, vol. ii. p. 55. 



