594 APPENDIX. 



argue upon as alternatives, one or other of which I must ac- 

 cept, both speak of Matter and units of Matter as though 

 actually existing under the forms thought by us; and the 

 last, speaking of " matter as endowed with force or forces/ 7 

 implies that whether in mass or in units, Matter is a space- 

 occupying something which is in the one case inert and the 

 other case made active by force with which it is " endowed " 

 force which is added to the inert something. Spite of all 

 the pains I have taken to show that I regard Matter as itself 

 a localized manifestation of Force spite of all the evidence 

 that our idea of a unit of Matter, or atom, is regarded by me 

 simply as a symbol which the form of our thought obliges us 

 to use, but which we cannot suppose answers to the reality 

 without committing ourselves to alternative impossibilities 

 of thought; I. am debited with the belief that Matter actually 

 consists " of space-occupying units, having shape and meas- 

 urement." Though I have repeatedly made it clear that our. 

 ideas of Matter, Motion and Force are but the a, ?/, and z with 

 which we work our equations, and formulate the various rela- 

 tions among phenomena in such way as to express their order 

 in terms of #, y and z though I have shown that the realities 

 for which #, y and z stand, cannot be conceived by us as actu- 

 ally existing thus or thus without committing ourselves to 

 alternative absurdities; yet questions are put implying that I 

 must hold one or other hypothesis concerning these actual 

 existences, and I am supposed to be involved in all the diffi- 

 culties which arise. 



Another work devoted to the refutation of my views, is 

 that of Professor Birks, Modern Physical Fatalism and the 

 Doctrine of Evolution, including an examination of Mr. H. 

 Spencer's First Principles. Having dealt with the work of Mr. 

 Guthrie, I cannot pass by that of Prof. Birks without raising 

 the suspicion that I find some difficulty in dealing with it. 

 Indeed, I do find a difficulty, a difficulty illustrated by that 

 found in disentangling a skein of silk which has been pulled 

 about by a child for half an hour. And just as the patience 

 of a bystander would fail were he asked to look on until, by 

 unravelling the tangled skein, its continuity was proved; so 

 would the reader's attention be exhausted before I had recti- 

 fied one-tenth part of the meshes and knots into which Prof. 

 Birks has twisted my statements. 



Abundant warrant for this assertion is furnished by the 



