MATTER AND FORCE. 75 



Whether it be a consequence of long-continued develop- 

 ment, or an endowment conferred once for all on man at 

 his creation, we find him here gifted with a mind, curious 

 to know the causes of things, and surrounded by objects 

 which excite its questionings, and raise the desire for an 

 explanation. It is related of a young prince of one of the 

 Pacific Islands, that when he first saw himself in a looking- 

 glass, he ran round the glass to see who was standing at 

 the back. And thus it is with the general human intellect, 

 as regards the phenomena of the external world. It wishes 

 to get behind and learn the causes and connections of these 

 phenomena. What is the sun, what is the earth, what 

 should we see if we came to the edge of the earth and 

 looked over? What is the meaning of thunder and light- 

 ning, of hail, rain, storm, and snow ? Such questions pre- 

 sented themselves to early men, and by-and-by it was dis- 

 covered, that this desire for knowledge was not implanted 

 in vain. After many trials it became evident that man's 

 capacities were, so to speak, the complement of Nature's 

 facts, and that, within certain limits, the secret of the uni- 

 verse was open to the human understanding. It was found 

 that the mind of man had the power of penetrating far be- 

 yond the boundaries of his five senses ; that the things 

 which are seen in the material world depend for their action 

 upon things unseen ; in short, that besides the phenomena 

 which address the senses, there are laws and principles and 

 processes which do not address the senses at all, but which 

 must be, and can be, spiritually discerned. 



There are two things which form, so to say, the sub- 

 stance of all scientific thought. The entire play of the 

 scientific intellect is confined to the combination and res- 

 olution of the ideas of matter and force. Newton, it is 

 said, saw an apple fall. To the common mind this pre- 

 sented no difficulty and excited no question. Not so with 

 Newton. He observed the fact ; but one side of his great 



