Will and Guidance 165 



activity, by arranging the position of existing 

 material, and timing the liberation of existing 

 energy, as to produce results concordant with 

 an idea or scheme or intention : it can, in 

 short, "aim" and "fire." 



Guidance of matter can be affected by a 

 passive exertion of force without doing 

 work ; as a quiescent rail can guide a train 

 to its destination, provided an active engine 

 propels it. But the analogy of the rail must 

 not be pressed : the rail " guides " by exert- 

 ing force perpendicular to the direction of 

 motion, it does no work but it sustains an 

 equal opposite reaction. 1 The guidance 

 exercised by life or mind is managed in an 

 unknown but certainly different fashion : 

 " determination " can sustain no reaction 



1 It is well to bear in mind the distinction between 

 " force " and " energy." These terms have been so popularly 

 confused that it may be difficult always to discriminate them, 

 but in Physics they are absolutely discriminated. We have 

 a direct sense of " force," in our muscles, whether they be 

 moving or at rest. A force in motion is a "power," it 

 " does work " and transfers energy from one body to another, 

 which is commonly though incorrectly spoken of as 

 "generating" energy. But a force at rest a mere statical 



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