io6 Continuity of mental and other actions. 



whilst trifling causes appear to produce great effects ; 

 the real causes are the stored up latent powers set 

 free or directed. It is astonishing how small a 

 circumstance will excite an idea, and deflect the 

 entire current of our thoughts ; and it is equally 

 surprising what great physical and chemical effects 

 are often started by most minute exciting or deflec- 

 ting conditions ; the explosion of seven tons of 

 dynamite at Hell-gate, near New York, by the 

 pressure of a child's finger closing an electric circuit 

 is a suitable example. 



Every phenomenon therefore whether physical or 

 mental, is probably connected in an indissoluble 

 manner with some preceding phenomenon, either im- 

 mediately in point of time, or remotely through some 

 static condition, usually that of stored up power. In 

 this sense the great principle of continuity of phen- 

 omena appears to be universal, and the present state 

 of the Universe is said to implicitly or potentially 

 contain all the future states of the Universe. Mind 

 also in this way, like each of the physical forces, often 

 acts as a link in an endless chain of causes and effects,, 

 and is connected with non-mental phenomena in ac- 

 cordance with the great principles of science. 



Science has demonstrated what has been termed 

 the "Convertibility of Forces," or, that when one form 

 of energy disappears, another form (or forms) of 

 energy, and in precisely equivalent amount, is pro- 

 duced in its stead, either in a latent or active state. 

 The equivalent quantities of the various forms of 



