MECHANISM OF NATURE 



Everywhere we see effect follow cause and the 

 effect become the cause to another effect, until 

 every cause is an effect and every effect is a cause. 



Could the sun give light by disorganization be- 

 fore it was organized ? Surely not, any more than 

 a chip can burn before it is a chip. 



When the Universe was void, that is, when it 

 was filled with primary spheres that were each in- 

 dependent of the other, there were no environ- 

 ments, and no primary sphere could exert any influ- 

 ence on any other primary sphere, let the pressure 

 on it be ever so great, for every influence consists 

 of pressure on one side and yielding on the other. 



All the innumerable primary spheres of the Uni- 

 verse move without the slightest resistance when 

 there is pressure on one side and yielding on the 

 other; all the force of the Universe cannot make 

 them yield if applied equally from two opposite 

 sides. 



This is the great fruit of Newton's labor, that 

 our science has been able to realize that in this Uni- 

 verse nothing can be either gained or lost, that as 

 far as our circle of reasoning goes, both material 

 and force are everlasting and incapable of increase 

 or decrease. 



But equally all the Universe cannot, of its own 

 self, go beyond itself or make one change which is 

 not the result of a former change, or produce one 

 form without a mould to produce it in. 



Let it be granted that the Universe was first 

 created "void and without form," and that en- 



76 



