72 SCEPTICISM. 



make interaction possible between bodies that co- 

 exist, seeing that their co-existence is an ample 

 guarantee of their connection and of the possibility 

 of their interaction. 



Lastly, the Inertia of matter is a prejudice in- 

 herited from a time when- the test of life was self- 

 motion ; and its retention now makes the origination 

 of motion by matter impossible, and thus forms an 

 insuperable obstacle to any successful materialistic 

 (or rather hylozoist) explanation of the world. 



The sum total therefore of the explanation of 

 bodies by scientific doctrines of Matter is :■ — 



(i) That all things are Matter. 



(2) That gravitation is the characteristic quality 

 of Matter. 



(3) That gravitation is entirely unthinkable. 



(4) That ether is Matter, but does not gravitate. 



(5) That Matter is solid, but that solidity is not 

 due to the solidity of Matter. 



(6) That Matter does not explain all things be- 

 cause it is inert. 



It will be seen from this^ that until the theory of 

 Matter acquires something like self-consistency it is 

 needless for the sceptic to inquire whether it ex- 

 plains the action of bodies.. 



§ 10. Force is the conception which does most 

 work in science ; but it is only a clumsy depersonal- 

 ization of our human volition, from the sense of 

 which it sprang,, and the sense of effort still seems 

 indissolubly associated with it. This fact is, of 

 course, irresistibly suggestive of false ideas as to 

 the ''cause of motion," it is subsequently defined 

 to be. 



The correlative conceptions again of Activity and 

 Passivity, which so long dominated human thought. 



