1855.] On Mental Education. 479 



tions of science with the most imaginary and unprofitable 

 speculation, that are continually passing through their various 

 phases of intellectual, experimental, or commercial develop- 

 ment : some to he established, some to disappear, and some 

 to recur again and again, like ill weeds that cannot be extir- 

 pated, yet can be cultivated to no result as wholesome food for 

 the mind. Such, for instance, in different degrees, are the 

 caloric engine, the electric light, the Pasilalinic sympathetic 

 compass*, mesmerism, homoeopathy, odylism, the magneto- 

 electric engine, the perpetual motion, &c. : all hear and talk 

 of these things ; all use their judgment more or less upon 

 them, and all might do that effectively, if they were to instruct 

 themselves to the extent which is within their reach. I am 

 persuaded that natural things offer an admirable school for 

 self-instruction, a most varied field for the necessary mental 

 practice, and that those who exercise themselves therein may 

 easily apply the habits of thought thus formed to a social use : 

 but as a first step in such practice, clear ideas should be ob- 

 tained of what is possible and what is impossible. Thus, it is 

 impossible to create force. We may employ it ; we may evoke 

 it in one form by its consumption in another; we may hide it 

 for a period ; but we can neither create nor destroy it. We 

 may cast it away ; but where we dismiss it, there it will do its 

 work. If, therefore, we desire to consider a proposition re- 

 specting the employment or evolution of power, let us carry 

 our judgment, educated on this point, with us. If the pro- 

 posal include the double use of a force with only one excite- 

 ment, it implies a creation of power, and that cannot be, If 

 we could by the fingers draw a heavy piece of wood or stone 

 upward without effort, and then, letting it sink, could produce 

 by its gravity an effort equal to its weight, that would be a 

 creation of power, and cannot be. 



So, again, we cannot annihilate matter, nor can we create it. 

 But if we are satisfied to rest upon that dogma, what are we 

 to think of table-lifting ? If we could make the table to cease 

 from acting by gravity upon the earth beneath 'it, or by reac- 

 tion upon the hand supposed to draw it upwards, we should 

 annihilate it in respect of that very property which charac- 

 terizes it as matter. 



* See Chamber's Journal, 1851, Feb. 15, p, 105. 



