x Prof. Sabatier on tJie same. 177 



in comparison with the dynamical force disengaged ', 

 directly or indirectly, by the act, than the pull of a 

 hair-trigger in comparison with the force of the mine 

 which it explodes. But without the power to make 

 some material disposition, to originate some movement, 

 or to change, at least temporarily, the amount of 

 dynamical force appropriate to some one or more 

 material molecules, the mechanical results of human 

 or animal volition are inconceivable. It matters not 

 that we are ignorant of the mode in which this is 

 performed. It suffices to bring the origination of 

 dynamical power, to however small an extent, within 

 the domain of acknowledged personality." J 



A French writer of our time Professor Armand 

 Sabatier, of Montpellier has proposed to cut the 

 knot in another way, by questioning the absolute 

 uniformity of the order of nature. 2 He admits, of 

 course, that all motions on the largest scale, that is 

 to say, those of the celestial bodies, and indeed of all 

 masses which are visible to the unassisted eye, are 

 absolutely determined ; but he suggests that this may 

 not be true of those molecular motions which modern 

 science has proved to exist everywhere ; and, as he 

 truly remarks, it is not in the greatest but in the 

 minutest actions that the nature of matter is in any 

 degree revealed to us. Light consists of undulations 

 in an ethereal substance, moving, so long as the light 



1 Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects, p. 468. 



2 In a series of articles entitled Evolution ct Liberte, in the 

 llcvue Chretienne of April, May, September, and October 1885. 



N 



