The Universe. 37 



the mind of man " is that of Lord Kelvin. He suggests 

 that vortices in the " ether," like whorls shown in the 

 air by puffs of smoke, are the beginnings of matter ; 

 so that force and matter are inconvertible. But the 

 vortices cannot be matter, for these could not exist 

 without a medium to form them. Further, if matter 

 be made out of the medium, then the medium must 

 itself be matter, or else we must frame a different 

 definition of matter from the usual. In other words, 

 if matter be something, as contra-distinguished from 

 nothing, then " ether " or any other postulated exist- 

 ence must be matter. Consequently, to say that force 

 and matter are inconvertible is to assert that some- 

 thing and nothing are inconvertible. This may be 

 metaphysics, but it is not science. The most accurate 

 definition of matter is probably that enunciated by 

 Professor Flint as the ordinary chemical one, viz , 

 " All material substances are divisible into elementary 

 substances, which are sub-divisible into molecules, and 

 ultimately into atoms possessed of distinctive qualita- 

 tive as well as quantitative differences." 



As regards the origin of matter it is, through its 

 indestructibility, originless. 



Section 4. Energy, or the Motion of the Things of 

 Existence : 



Energy is necessarily, from its constitution, co-equal 

 with matter, each being indispensable to the other. 

 Thus matter is never at rest. It is inseparable from 

 its motion, for it possesses all its qualities in virtue of 



2065b 



