EXTRACT XIV. 



ON THE PHYSICAL LAW, OR PROPERTY, OF MATTER, 

 KNOWN AS INERTIA. 



THE law, or property, of inertia, as applied in physics, 

 has long been accepted as axiomatic, and as universally 

 operative, throughout the world of matter, and that it is 

 relatively so we are not prepared to dispute, more than 

 that it should be applied only to matter in motion, 

 because matter at rest must be regarded as a physical 

 impossibility^ even in the most perfectly-conducted vacuum 

 experiment, where its apparent rest, is owing merely to a 

 temporary arrest or rather slowing, of the rate of its 

 continual and universal movement. The temporary 

 arrest, or slowing, of the rate of motion by such experi- 

 ments as above mentioned can only be regarded as a 

 44 toy stoppage," which is annulled by the frictional 

 influence of " passing events," and the disintegrating 

 effects of the " hands of time," as they reduce to dust the 

 most durable material that can be converted into a 

 vacuum vessel, as it passes through space at planet speed. 

 Verily it may, and must, be said, that there is no " abiding 

 place " in nature, and that there is no exception to the 

 truth of that part of the law of inertia which is alone 

 operative in the physics of the material universe, that 

 matter in motion will continue for ever in motion, and 

 that there can be no possibility of its absolute arrest. The 

 apparent exceptions to this aspect of the law of inertia of 

 matter are only apparent and make the necessity of 

 accepting the truth of the law, as thus modified, absolute, 

 and undeniable. Moreover, all the sciences, so far as we 

 have been able to appreciate their demands, recognise, and 



