Will and Guidance 167 



To every force there is an equal opposite 

 force or reaction, and a reaction may be 

 against a live body, but it is never suspected 

 of being against the abstraction life or mind 

 that would indeed be enlarging the scope 

 of mechanics ! the reaction is always against 

 some other body. All stresses as a matter 

 of fact occur in the ether ; and they all 

 have a material terminus at each end (or in 

 exceptional cases a wave-front or some 

 other recondite etherial equivalent), that is 

 to say something possessing inertia ; but the 

 timed or opportune existence of a particular 

 stress may be the result of organisation 

 and control. Mechanical operations can 

 be thus dominated by intelligence and 

 purpose. When a stone is rolling over a 

 cliff, it is all the same to " energy " whether 

 it fall on point A or point B of the beach. 

 But at A it shall merely dent the sand, 

 whereas at B it shall strike a detonator and 

 explode a mine. Scribbling on a piece of 

 paper results in a certain distribution of fluid 

 and production of a modicum of heat : so 



