POWER AND RESISTANCE, 



273 



it receives from my pen ; the degree of action 

 which is produced, does not so much arise from 

 magnitude, as from internal energy; from the 

 quantity of ponderable matter, as from activity 

 and skill. It is by means such as these, that 

 the strong in mind, but weak in body, are often 

 enabled to overcome the strong in body, but 

 weak in mind. It is in the skill which experi- 

 ence is often capable of producing, that the 

 expert swordsman is enabled to overcome the 

 awkward rustic ; by which the little David was 

 able to slay the great Goliah, 



It is this power which, in fact, constitutes 

 really and truly, not only vis motus, but vis 

 inertiae also; a power to move, as well as a 

 power to be quiet ; a power to act, and to re- 

 sist, as well as a power to yield, and to follow 

 impressions communicated and received. 



It is by the expansive force of air, and of va- 

 por, that steam-engines are made capable of over- 

 coming the same degree of resistance, as the 

 supposed power of 10, 40, and 00 horses ; that 

 levers can balance, and raise, different weights ; 



may be said to bear the same relation to power, as the obedi- 

 ence of a servant to the will of his master as children to their 

 parents, as loyal subjects to the law&of the government under 

 which they live, and as the universe in general to the Deity 

 omnipotent, by whose infinite power it is governed and Cou- 

 trouled. 



