

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 65 



forces are modified, so as to give rise to new electrical 

 manifestations. Such a view might have been admis- 

 sible if forces were considered as independent entities, 

 capable of manifesting themselves in different ways, 

 but with an inherent obstinacy of their own an inborn 

 reluctance to change their mode of action which could 

 only be overcome by the superior energy of some inde- 

 pendent, autocratic demon situated in each particle of a 

 body. We will not speak of the waste of energy which 

 would result, on such a supposition, from the everlast- 

 ing conflict of these powers, because such doctrines are 

 now effete. Forces are not separable entities. They 

 are merely modes, affections, properties call it what 

 you will of matter; and, therefore, necessarily vary 

 with the molecular states of matter. When heat gives 

 rise to electricity, a certain amount of heat vanishes, 

 and an equivalent amount of electricity appears, be- 

 cause the heat, under certain conditions of proximity 

 of other metals, has arranged the metallic molecules in 

 a different way. This heat or force expends itself in 

 producing the molecular change, and the result of the 

 new molecular arrangement is, that electrical pro- 

 perties are manifested instead of heat, because elec- 

 tricity is the propei ty of this particular molecular 

 arrangement, just as heat was the property of the 

 particles when in their immediately antecedent con- 

 dition. This is just parallel with what we have pre- 

 viously alluded to as characterising the transformation 

 of the motion of masses into heat, or the motion of 



VOL. I. F 



