98 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



as the relative reality indicating to us an Absolute 

 Reality by which it is immediately produced."* In 

 that region of the unknowable he will not allow us to 

 form of it any definite concept: whether, in the in- 

 scrutable it has uniformly existed as force, or whether 

 it may have existed in some other mode of actuality, 

 we are not warranted either to affirm or deny. We 

 may conclude that the interpretation of the propo- 

 sition to mean, Force remains force, yields no profit- 

 able result. 



But the predication may be read with another 

 implication, one which Mr. Spencer himself has 

 indicated. Persistence may mean continuance "un- 

 changed in quantity throughout all past time and 

 all future time."*)* That is, the force that persists 

 was a million years ago exactly the same in amount 

 that it is to-day, and so shall be a million years hence. 

 Now it is evident that this affirmation is wholly be- 

 yond the reach of experiential proof. We have no 

 means of measuring with exactness any manifested 

 force in the state in which it is, or in the state into 

 which it subsequently passes. Observation cannot 

 assure us that the quantity remains unaltered. At 

 the very moment of observation the process of change 

 is going on. When a gun is fired, a certain amount of 

 force is liberated and a certain amount of effect pro- 

 duced; but these cannot be quantified. The forces 



* First Principles, 50. t Ibid., 191. 



