64 THOUGHTS ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



Freely moving matter is free ; all its temporary 

 bonds are doomed to destruction. Thought, being 

 the product of freely moving matter, must also be 

 free. Efforts have been made to bind and tame it, 

 but all the petty efforts of man to confine Nature 

 end in time in failure ; she rends and consumes the 

 bonds in the majesty of her progress. *Free thought, 

 by its clashing and warring, speeds thought to greater 

 brilliance, or cools it to more tempered and exact 

 argument, and is beneficial. Even the incoherent 

 ravings of a poor lunatic have their uses if they drive 

 us, as they should, to a close scientific study of their 

 causes, in order that the disorder may be alleviated 

 or abolished. Nature is greater than we, her puny 

 product. 



The master key to the whole subject is material 

 motion. Minor keys are : I. The speed of material 

 portions; 2. Like forces, with like matter, produce 

 like results. The slightest variation in force or speed, 

 or arrangement of matter, may give a tendency to 

 variation in results; and this, carried far enough, 

 accounts for the variation in individuals and species. 

 tDarwin's work dealt more with the outward mani- 

 festation, this deals with the material power, in the 

 form of material motion. 



*"Do not be afraid of being free thinkers." Lord Kelvin. But 

 study to think correctly. The Aiithor. 



f The work of Darwin, Wallace, Huxley, Haeckel, and other great 

 thinkers, mathematicians and experimenters, the whole galaxy of 

 scientific Masters, has made this work and theory possible. 



