- RELATIONS BETWEEN MIND AND MATTER. 89 



after it was discovered it was not perceived for a long time 

 that the inertness of matter could no longer be held as a tenet 

 in philosophy. There are plenty of teachers yet who think 

 matter to be inert, and as possessing no energy. But what is 

 energy ? Simply the ability of a body to act on other bodies 

 so as to move them in one way or another. 



That kind of action which is called chemical action, by which 

 atoms combine together in certain definite ways, in which 

 atoms choose their partners and become wedded, is a manifes- 

 tation of the energy of atoms, which is ever present with them, 

 a part of their endowment and inalienable. Heat, light, elec- 

 tricity are modes of the energetic action of the ultimate parti- 

 cles of matter called the elements. In all the manifestations of 

 these so-called forms of motion or energy, which we employ for 

 economic uses, it ought not to be forgotten that we do not 

 endow the matter, but we find it already endowed, which shows 

 that matter is not to be considered as so helpless as it has been 

 the custom to think it to be. But these atoms and their com- 

 binations that is, molecules are often found organized into 

 beautiful forms called crystals. There are diamonds and sap- 

 phires, rubies and emeralds, garnets, topazes, beryls, sugar, alum, 

 and a thousand forms familiar enough everywhere. These 

 symmetrical forms are due solely to the inherent qualities of the 

 substances themselves, and testify to the ability of the matter 

 to arrange itself, which inert matter could not do. Dewar and 

 others have shown that in the absence of temperature, chemism 

 does not exist ; and if matter can do so much as is plain to 

 perceive, is it likely that these exhaust the possibilities of its 

 doings ? We know better already ; but I have developed this 

 point far enough to show what I want to make plain, namely, 

 that matter has possibilities which the reigning philosophy has 

 denied it to have. 



It has been the custom to speak of all the inherent qualities 

 of matter and the various phenomena which directly result from 

 them as being physical and chemical. Are there any such 

 purely physical and chemical phenomena that are really com- 

 parable with what we take to be vital or living phenomena ? 

 Yes, a great many. 



