CHAPTER III. 



EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 



We must now consider what use is to be made of these 

 universal truths which the foregoing survey of the abstract- 

 concrete sciences has disclosed. For if we inquire whether 

 these theorems, singly or combined, can be made to supply 

 the materials needful for constructing such an organized body 

 of truths as may fitly be called Cosmic Philosophy, — it will 

 require but a brief consideration to show us that much more 

 is needed. 



In respect of universality, no doubt, these truths leave 

 nothing to be desired. That every manifestation of force 

 must be preceded and followed by an equivalent manifesta- 

 tion; that correlated forms of energy are transmutable one 

 into the other ; that motion follows the line of least resist- 

 ance; and that there is a continuous rhythmical redistribu- 

 tion of matter and motion ; — these are propositions which 

 are true alike of all orders of phenomena, and may therefore 

 justly claim to be regarded, in a certaiu sense, as philosophic 

 truths. Yet we need only fancy ourselves enunciating these 

 abstract theorems as of themselves supplying the explanation 

 of any given order of concrete phenomena, in order to realize 

 how far we still remain from our desired goal. If we were 

 to remind a biologist that in every step of his investigations 

 he takes for granted the persistence of force, he would doubt* 



