32 



MATTER AND FORCE, IN PHYSICAL 

 PHENOMENA. 



ALL physical science and philosophy are concentrated 

 in these two terms. They have furnished, of late more 

 especially, the text for much and various discussion 

 discussion, to which the obscurity as well as grandeur 

 of the ultimate truths involved in them has given addi- 

 tional zest. The two words have been seized upon, 

 indeed, with a curious avidity, and made to sub- 

 serve speculations at once vague and incongruous. I 

 can count a dozen books, and many more articles, 

 which during the last few years have dealt with the 

 questions they involve. Some speculators (for specula- 

 tion it must still be called) merge matter wholly in 

 force. Others see force only through the conditions 

 of matter. Without assuming to add anything new on 

 the subject, I take it up as one on which I seek to get 

 some understanding of what has already come, or may 

 come, within the scope of human enquiry. 



The need of a just definition of the two words is 

 that first felt. Force, or power, that acts; matter, 

 that which is seen, or sensibly known, to be acted 

 upon these are the elements of the problem, but too 

 general in their expression to be of much service to us. 

 We are met in limine by questions hard of solution. 

 Is force really an entity of power distinct from matter ? 



