CHAPTEE IV. 



THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 



52. NOT because the truth is unfamiliar, is it needful 

 here to say something concerning the indestructibility of 

 Matter; but partly because the symmetry of our argument 

 demands the enunciation of this truth, and partly because 

 the evidence on which it is accepted requires examination. 

 Could it be shown, or could it with any rationality be even 

 supposed, that Matter, either in its aggregates or in its 

 units, ever became non-existent, there would be need either 

 to ascertain under what conditions it became non-existent, 

 or else to confess that Science and Philosophy are impos- 

 sible. For if, instead of having to deal with fixed quantities 

 and weights, we had to deal with quantities and weights 

 which were apt, wholly or in part, to be annihilated, there 

 would be introduced an incalculable element, fatal to all 

 positive conclusions. Clearly, therefore, the proposition 

 that matter is indestructible must be deliberately consid- 

 ered. 



So far from being admitted as a self-evident truth, this 

 would, in primitive times, have been rejected as a self-evi- 

 dent error. There was once universally current, a notion 

 that things could vanish into absolute nothing, or arise out of 

 absolute nothing. If we analyze early superstitions, or that 

 faith in magic which was general in later times and even 

 still survives among the uncultured, we find one of its postu- 

 lates to be, that by some potent spell Matter can be called 

 out of non-entity, and can be made non-existent. If men did 



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