IDENTICAL CHANGES 



expense of the other, so that one pound lifted a 

 hundred feet can be always made, by falling the 

 hundred feet, to lift a hundred pounds one foot. 



Yet there can be no amount of force, because 

 force is irresistible. Neither can the action of 

 force be faster or slower, for force is ever instan- 

 taneous. (Prop. IV, B. 3.) 



Then how may these contrary statements be rec- 

 onciled ? 



As far back as human memory runs not to the 

 contrary, the two propositions, one that the infinite 

 whole swallows up all identity, and the other that 

 every identity carries within itself the infinite, have 

 divided the world into two factions. 



And under some party name or other have Phari- 

 sees and Sadducees disputed and fought about the 

 relation of the individual to the whole, through all 

 ages. 



But all the wars that have been fought and all 

 the books that have been written have not settled 

 the question; a fatalist is still a fatalist and an 

 anarchist is still an anarchist. 



And science has never profited by pursuing 

 abstract tangles, for true science deals with iden- 

 tities; it is the knowledge of changing forms, the 

 tracing of one change to another change. 



Therefore, let it be granted that force is irre- 

 sistible and instantaneous, that Mohammed can 

 move the Mountain if he will; and also that Mo- 

 hammed is limited by his environment, that force 

 is bounded in intensity and distance. 

 101 



