IDENTICAL CHANGES 



ultimately the result of a great normal movement 

 of air and water. 



Since many forces penetrate all known sub- 

 stance, and after thus penetrating are again amen- 

 able to the law of the square ; from the uniformity 

 of action in gravity observed in a vacuum, and 

 from a great variety of other reasons, it appears 

 that a normal flow penetrates all substances in 

 plane layers. 



And it is very safe to assume that nothing in 

 nature can stop the normal flow, and that normal 

 flow of material must constitute the last material 

 the human mind can grasp. For that flow, acting 

 upon organized forms, while breaking up every 

 form and rebuilding it particle by particle, must 

 itself become susceptible to laws of time and dis- 

 tance and therefore prehensile to the human mind. 

 Then under this alternate hypothesis the infinite 

 is the solid background, an identical infinite for- 

 ever incomprehensible to human reason. And all 

 identity of forms, all changes they may undergo 

 constituting their identical life because of the uni- 

 versal flow, and even the changes of direction, of 

 intensity or time, of that flow itself between or- 

 ganized bodies, becomes perceptible to human 

 reason. 



How do living identities exert their influence on 

 one another, when none of them have inherent 

 power, force or energy of their own? 



The answers to this question constitute the mate- 

 rial, real and progressive science. 



117 



