56 A GREAT CONFESSION CHAP. 



the idea of the doctrine of the Conserva- 

 tion of Energy by proving through 

 rigorous experiment the mechanical 

 equivalent of heat, has said that " we 

 might reason a priori that the absolute 

 destruction of living force cannot possibly 

 take place because it is manifestly absurd 

 to suppose that the powers with which 

 God has endowed matter can be de- 

 stroyed, any more than they can be 

 created, by man's agency. " 1 



Believing as I do in the inseparable 

 unity which binds us to all the verities 

 of nature, I should be the last to pro- 

 scribe the careful use of our own abstract 

 conceptions. But it is quite certain and 

 is now universally admitted that the 

 methods of Thomas Aquinas in his 

 Summa are full of danger when they are 



1 In a lecture delivered at Manchester, April 28, 

 1847. See Strictures on the Sermon, etc., by B. St. 

 J. B. Joule, J.P., a pamphlet published 1887 (J- 

 Heywood, Manchester). 



