IDENTICAL CHANGES 



nize its own limitation, and accept an infinite be- 

 yond that limitation, without fruitless impossible 

 endeavor to cross that limitation, or else be ever 

 making new idols of clay to hold an inherent force. 



PROPOSITION XIV. 



Inertia is the result of the relations existing 'be- 

 tween every organized substance and the whole 

 Universe. 



Generally inertia is looked upon as a negative 

 quality of all matter, and it is stated that matter 

 can neither start into motion, nor stop moving by 

 itself alone. And undoubtedly this is true. But 

 there are other things said of inertia that are not 

 true. And evidently the erroneous impression is 

 the offspring of the fundamental misconception 

 that an occult force or life can be inherent in, or 

 bestowed upon, an identical material body. The 

 law of inertia, that bodies moving by acquired 

 force move in a straight line, is not a negative 

 quality of matter, but a positive requirement of 

 force. Again, it is stated that the tendency of 

 bodies moving by inertia is to go on in a straight 

 line forever. And that eternal tendency is, for 

 the time being, ingrafted upon the moving body, 

 until it is transferred to some other body. And 

 the force that is moving the body is a separate por- 

 tion of force; under this hypothesis it pertains to 

 the particular moving identity only, and is cut off 

 121 



