276 CALORIC THE CAUSE OF FORMS. 



and tangible forms ; consequently, that it is the 

 self-active arid universal essence on which all the 

 manifestations of being or existence depend.* 



Yet we are told that caloric is not a material 

 substance, because it is imponderable. It is 

 evident, however, that whatever the cause of 

 gravity may be, it must be imponderable without 

 gravity ; otherwise we must explain gravity by 

 itself, which would be absurd. The truth is, 

 that when reduced to a state of ultimate diffusion, 

 all matter is imponderable, as in the form of the 

 electric spark, flame, &c. And if caloric were 

 " motion and nothing else," as maintained by 

 Bacon and other philosophers, it would follow 

 that the prime mover in a steam engine, and 

 throughout all nature, is motion, a proposition 

 which involves the glaring absurdity of explain- 

 ing motion by itself. 



But without plunging further into the profound 

 abyss of chaos, or practical non-existence that 

 would follow the entire extinction of the organ- 

 izing principle, it is the legitimate province of 

 science to ascertain how it produces all the 

 phenomena of nature in accordance with the 

 invariable laws of supreme intelligence. Nor 

 is it possible to predict the results which would 

 flow from a searching method of analyzing 

 facts. We often mistake our own inattention 



* And if the particles of all bodies be surrounded by a self-active 

 principle, there can be no such thing as absolute inertia in nature. 



