16 BORDER LINES OF KNOWLEDGE 



definition, any more than the hypothetical substratum 

 of matter. If we assume the Infinite as omnipresent, 

 omniscient, omnipotent, we cannot suppose Him ex- 

 cluded from any part of His creation, except from 

 rebellious souls which voluntarily exclude Him by 

 the exercise of their fatal prerogative of free-will.* 

 Force, then, is the act of immanent Divinity. I find 

 no meaning in mechanical explanations. Newton's hy- 

 pothesis of an ether filling the heavenly spaces does 

 not, I confess, help my conceptions. I will, and the 

 muscles of my vocal organs shape my speech. God 

 wills, and the universe articulates His power, wisdom, 

 and goodness. That is all I know. There is no bridge 

 my mind can throw from the "immaterial" cause to 

 the "material" effect. 



The problem of force meets us everywhere, and I 

 prefer to encounter it in the world of physical phenom- 

 ena before reaching that of living actions. It is only 

 the name for the incomprehensible cause of certain 

 changes known to our consciousness, and assumed to be 

 outside of it. For me it is the Deity Himself in action. 



I can therefore see a large significance in the some- 



* " Cum unaquseque spatii particula sit semper^ et unumquodque duratio- 

 nis indivisibile momentum ubique; certe rerum omnium Fabricator ac 

 Dominus non erit nunquam nusquam. Omniprsesens est non per virtutem 

 solam, sed etiam per subsiantiam ; nam virtus sine substantia subsistere 

 non potest." — Newton, loc. cit. 



** The Lord of all, himself through all diflfused, 

 Sustains and is the life of all that lives." 



The Task, B. VL 1. 221, 222. 



