MATTER AND FORCE, IN PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. 47 



and instantaneous transmission offers itself as a phrase 

 of readier adoption, though not relieving us from the 

 necessity of admitting a medium of transmission, and a 

 rate of propagation through it. 



Eeading over what I have written, I am more than 

 ever impressed with the conviction that we cannot deal 

 with this subject of force otherwise than as a method 

 of . expounding material phenomena. That there are 

 powers (or I rather willingly say, Power) at work, 

 distinct from matter itself, can hardly be denied. But 

 human reason is incompetent to grasp in their entirety 

 these great problems of the natural world. We record 

 innumerable appearances attesting the relations of 

 matter and force ; and determine certain primary con- 

 ditions necessary to their development ; and research, 

 thus directed, will doubtless attain yet higher results. 

 But speculations which discard these sober methods, 

 and seek to enter per saltum into the secrets of nature 

 and creation, generally substitute words for realities, 

 and are for the most part upset by the progress of 

 science itself. It is a wise saying of Pascal, ' L'univers 

 nous ecrase. C'est le privilege de 1'homme de savoir 

 qu'il est ecrase.' 



