MECHANISM OF NATURE 



PROPOSITION VI. 



Without movement there can ~be no action of 

 force. 



Every manifestation of force is a mechanical 

 movement of material parts. (Prop. XXV, B. 2.) 



Evidently every movement is a mechanical move- 

 ment, and by it material parts are moved. 



And yet the occult conception of forces will ever 

 creep to the foreground with an attempt to sub- 

 stitute some hocus pocus, for the necessary flow of 

 material, from the body that transmits force, to 

 the body that receives force. 



Force cannot be stored up, or augmented or de- 

 stroyed. (Prop. XIII, B. 1.) Therefore, force 

 cannot be dormant or consist of a dead pressure, 

 but must ever be associated with motion. 



Does the nail driven into the wall, and is hold- 

 ing up a weight, exert force? Certainly not. It 

 is when the nail gives way and the weight falls 

 that force is manifested. Let one end of a rope 

 be fastened to a stump, and the rope passed 

 through a pulley on a log. Then if a horse pull 

 on the other end of the rope his power will be 

 doubled on the log. But if the log will not move, 

 the stump will come out just as readily as if the 

 horse were hitched directly to the stump, except- 

 ing the friction of the pulley. 



A dead pressure may be multiplied a thousand- 

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