THE P HAS IS OF FORCE. 183 



of the border. Take, for example, the production of temporary 

 insanity by intoxicatmg agents, on the one hand ; the influence 

 of the emotions, not merely on the quantity, but also on the 

 quality, of the secretions, on the other. These are unmistakable 

 phenomena, that have just as great a claim to be examined and 

 accounted for as those of ordinary mental or corporeal activity; 

 and which have yet been passed by, simply because no one 

 has yet been able to suggest any other than a " material " 

 explanation of them. 



We shall have greatly failed in our purpose, however, if we 

 have not by this time led our readers to perceive how com- 

 plete is the distinction between matter and force, and how close 

 is the relation between force and mind. Matter is in no case 

 more than the embodiment or instrument of force ; all its (so- 

 called) active states being merely the manifestations of an energy, 

 which, under different forms, is unceasingly operative. Nor can 

 it be fairly said, that in substituting the doctrine of force for 

 that of the " imponderables," we are only setting up one hypo- 

 thetical entity in place of another. Force is truly more of a 

 reality to us than matter itself 5 for we cannot become cognisant 

 even of the most fundamental property of matter — its occupation 

 of space — without the consciousness of resistance. We cannot, it 

 is true, isolate force from matter ; but we have two modes of 

 judging of it — one objective, the other subjective ; one based 

 upon observation of external phenomena, the other on the direct 

 revelation of our own consciousness. And we hold it to be by 

 the combination of both sets of considerations that cur truest and 

 most definite ideas of dynamical agency are to be attained. We 

 are conscious of the exertion of a power, when we either pro- 

 duce or resist motion ; whenever, therefore, we see bodies in 

 motion, we infer that only by a like exertion of power could 

 that motion have originated ; so when the retardation of motion 

 gives rise to heat, or heat (in ceasing to manifest itself as such) 

 gives rise to expansive force, we perceive that it is only the 

 manifestation that is changed, the fundamental power remain- 

 ing the same. And as we are thus led by the " correlation " 

 doctrine to consider the various agencies of nature as the ex- 

 pression of a conscious will, we find the highest science com- 



