The Persistence of Force. 107 



summed. Jf the force manifested in them is mani- 

 fested in any other forthgoing of energy, or if it sink 

 into the depths of the inscrutable, the persistence of 

 force is equally satisfied. This corollary also fails as 

 an axiomatic truth. 



3. The persistence of the relations among forces. 



" The first deduction to be drawn from the ultimate 

 universal truth that force persists, is that the relations 

 among forces persist." * Is this a universal principle ? 

 Clearly it must be, if it be an immediate deduction 

 from the " ultimate universal truth." Now observe, 

 it is not sortie relations, but " the relations " that per- 

 sist. " We cannot assert persistence of this something 

 beyond consciousness without asserting that the rela- 

 tions among its manifestations are persistent."-)- The 

 relations among the manifestations of the persistent 

 " something beyond consciousness " comprise relations 

 of space, time, number, quantity, quality, and cause 

 and effect. Do all these relations among forces per- 

 sist ? To answer in the affirmative launches us on a 

 sea of absurdities. Forces are manifested as occupy- 

 ing positions in space, if these spatial relations con- 

 tinue constant, every part of the cosmos must remain 

 eternally in fixed relation of distance to every other, 

 and motion internal to it is impossible : if time rela- 

 tions remain persistent, there can be no succession ; 

 the outflow of change was at the first instant stayed 



* First Principlts, 63. t Ibid., 65. 



