594 APPENDIX. 



argue upon as alternatives, one or other of which I must ac- 

 cept, both speak of Matter and units of Matter as though 

 actually existing under the forms thought by us; and the 

 last, speaking of " matter as endowed with force or forces/' 

 implies that whether in mass or in units, Matter is a space- 

 occupying something which is in the one case inert and the 

 other case made active by force with which it is " endowed " 

 — force which is added to the inert something. Spite of all 

 the pains I have taken to show that I regard Matter as itself 

 a localized manifestation of Force — spite of all the evidence 

 that our idea of a unit of Matter, or atom, is regarded by me 

 simply as a symbol which the form of our thought obliges us 

 to use, but which we cannot suppose answers to the reality 

 without committing ourselves to alternative impossibilities 

 of thought; I am debited with the belief that Matter actually 

 consists " of space-occupying units, having shape and meas- 

 urement." Though I have repeatedly made it clear that our 

 ideas of Matter, Motion and Force are but the x, y, and z with 

 which we work our equations, and formulate the various rela- 

 tions among phenomena in such way as to express their order 

 in terms of x, y and z — though I have shown that the realities 

 for which x, y and z stand, cannot be conceived by us as actu- 

 ally existing thus or thus without committing ourselves to 

 alternative absurdities; yet questions are put implying that I 

 must hold one or other hypothesis concerning these actual 

 existences, and I am supposed to be involved in all the diffi- 

 culties which arise. 



Another work devoted to the refutation of my views, is 

 that of Professor Birks, — Modern Physical Fatalism and the 

 Doctrine of Evolution, including an examination of Mr. H. 

 Spencer's First Principles. Having dealt with the work of Mr. 

 Guthrie, I cannot pass by that of Prof. Birks without raising 

 the suspicion that I find some difficulty in dealing with it. 

 Indeed, I do find a difficulty, — a difficulty illustrated by that 

 found in disentangling a skein of silk which has been pulled 

 about by a child for half an hour. And just as the patience 

 of a bystander would fail were he asked to look on until, by 

 unravelling the tangled skein, its continuity was proved; so 

 would the reader's attention be exhausted before I had recti- 

 fied one-tenth part of the meshes and knots into which Prof. 

 Birks has twisted my statements. 



Abundant warrant for this assertion is furnished by the 



