ON MATTER AND FORCE. 



tific separations or relations must not be looked 

 for. The different conditions of the same matter, 

 as solid, liquid, or vapour, will strike the senses 

 far more distinctively than the different ele- 

 mentary substances which are now known. So, 

 also, variations of form and quantity will be far 

 more noticeable than the action of the different 

 forces which we now recognise in matter. 

 Finally, we must expect no clear distinction 

 between the highest and the lowest phenomena 

 shown by animals and vegetables. The im- 

 mortal soul, the feelings, the reason, the instinct, 

 the life as it exists in animals and in vegetables, 

 are all likely to be utterly confused together ; 

 and it will be as vain to look for separate ideas 

 of different kinds of matter and force as to look 

 for separate ideas of the soul, the reason, the 

 animal life, and the vegetable life, to which 

 separation we are so well accustomed. 



Probably by far the oldest recorded ideas 

 which exist on the matter and force of inorganic 

 nature are those of the Jews, contained in a 

 few words in the Book of Genesis. It is said, 

 " The earth was created, and it was without 

 form, and void." After\vards, God said, "Let 



