THE QUESTION STATED 



tected and generalized the mode of manifestation 

 of one of those properties by virtue of which 

 matter is matter ; and he was justified, according 

 to the principles laid down in our third chapter, 

 in basing a universal proposition upon a single 

 instance. The final test of the presence of mat- 

 ter is the manifestation of the gravitative tend- 

 ency ; and such must be the case so long as we 

 are unable to transcend experience. As I before 

 observed, it is quite possible that there may 

 be worlds in which numerical limitations like 

 ours are not binding, and so it is very possible 

 that there may be worlds in which there is nei- 

 ther matter nor gravity. But any such possible 

 worlds, standing entirely out of relation to our 

 experience, are practically non-existent for a phi- 

 losophy which is based on the organization of 

 experience. 



Now, though the law of evolution is not, 

 like the law of gravitation, the generalization of 

 a property of matter, it is still the generalization 

 of certain concrete results of known properties 

 of matter. And the universality which in the 

 following chapters will be claimed for this gen- 

 eralization is precisely like the universality 

 claimed for the law of gravitation. The law of 

 evolution professes to formulate the essential 

 characteristics of a ceaseless redistribution of 

 matter and motion that must go on wherever 

 matter and motion possess the attributes by 

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