RECAPITULATION, CRITICISM, AND RECOMMENCEMENT. 287 



The law we seek, therefore, must be the law of the con- 

 tinuous redistribution of matter and motion. Absolute rest 

 and permanence do not exist. Every object, no less than 

 the aggregate of all objects, undergoes from instant to 

 instant some alteration of state. Gradually or quickly it is 

 receiving motion or losing motion, while some or all of its 

 parts are simultaneously changing their relations to one 

 another. And the question to be answered is What 

 dynamic principle, true of the metamorphosis as a whole 

 and in its details, expresses these ever-changing relations? 



This chapter has served its purpose if it has indicated the 

 nature of the ultimate problem. The discussion on which 

 we are now to enter, may fitly open with a new presentation 

 of this problem, carrying with it the clear implication that a 

 Philosophy, rightly so-called, can come into existence only 

 by solving the problem. 



