90 DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 



mutability of force is of immediate im- 

 portance to materialism. As long as it 

 was thought that the forces of nature 

 were separate and different from each 

 other, it was easy to imagine that the 

 more inaccessible or mystic forms stood 

 nearer life, yea, were life itself. The 

 absurdity of such an idea is now obvi- 

 ous, since it has been shown that the 

 physical forces may be transformed 

 into one another and therefore are not 

 intrinsically separate, but fundamen- 

 tally the same force, acting differently 

 under different conditions. Now, if life 

 were a form of material energy, any 

 form of physical force might be trans- 

 formed into life and consciousness, into 

 spiritual and moral forces. Life and 

 consciousness might then be artificially 

 produced, and we would rack our 

 brains in order to find the mechanical 

 equivalent of the intellect, try to meas- 

 ure it in amperes and volts, etc. But 

 nothing of this kind is done, simply be- 

 cause it is impossible, as presently we 

 shall see. Life cannot be transformed 



