1 92 CLUES AND SUGGESTIONS CHAP. 



which can never be either increased or 

 diminished, but can only be redistri- 

 buted. If this be the purely physical 

 sense in which Mr. Spencer uses the 

 word "energy" even although he 

 prints it in capitals, and although he 

 adds the glorifying qualifications of " In- 

 finite" and " Eternal" then we must 

 part company with him altogether. The 

 words "infinite" and "eternal" do not 

 of themselves redeem the materialism of 

 his conception. The force of gravita- 

 tion may be, for aught we know, infinite 

 in space, and eternal in duration. But 

 neither this form of energy, nor any 

 other which belongs to the same cate- 

 gory of the physical forces, affords the 

 least analogy to the kind of causation 

 which is conspicuous in the preconceived 

 Plan, in the corresponding initial struc- 

 ture, and in the directed development of 

 vital organs as apparatuses prepared 



