! y 8 MODERN SCHOOLMEN, 



discover) and in mode of aggregation. (which no one can 

 determine). Such statements can hardly be accepted as 

 serious explanations. They are dissipated as soon as they 

 are thought about. We may talk about aggregations, and 

 re-arrangements, and molecular changes giving rise to new 

 forms of matter. We may discourse learnedly, if we please, 

 about series of molecular changes in response to the inci- 

 dence of physical forces of degrees of molecular mobility 

 and disturbances of polar equilibrium of a lapse from one 

 mode of statical equilibrium to another giving rise to a 

 series of molecular changes characterizing " living matter" 

 of a " molecular aggregate " displaying " responsive 

 mobility and power of self-division," but not one step do 

 we gain. We are as we were. We learn nothing from 

 such nebulous verbosity. Those who talk thus pretend to 

 a knowledge, but it is of verbiage only. They laugh at the 

 " school-men," but spend all their strength in efforts to 

 revive and intensify the very systems they ridicule or 

 censure. The new modern sophistry is the weakest and 

 the most hollow of all sophistry: and although it must be 

 admitted that it is at this time popular, it has unquestion- 

 ably merited what it will, without doubt, receive in due time 

 the unqualified condemnation of sensible Englishmen. 



