220 THE EIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



clearest and most abstract monotheism. This universal 

 substance, this " divine nature of the world," shows 

 us two different aspects of its being, or two 

 fundamental attributes — matter (infinitely extended 

 substance) and spirit (the all-embracing energy of 

 thought). All the changes which have since come over 

 the idea of substance are reduced, on a logical analysis, 

 to this supreme thought of Spinoza's ; with Goethe 

 I take it to be the loftiest, profoundest, and truest 

 thought of all ages. Every single object in the world 

 which comes within the sphere of our cognizance, all 

 individual forms of existence, are but special transitory 

 forms — accidents or modes — of substance. These modes 

 are material things when we regard them under the 

 attribute of extension (or " occupation of space "), but 

 forces or ideas when we consider them under the 

 attribute of thought (or " energy "). To this profound 

 thought of Spinoza our purified monism returns after 

 a lapse of two hundred years ; for us, too, matter 

 (space-filling substance) and energy (moving force) 

 are but two inseparable attributes of the one under- 

 lying substance. 



Among the various modifications which the 

 fundamental idea of substance has undergone in 

 modern physics, in association with the prevalent 

 atomism, we shall select only two of the most 

 divergent theories for a brief discussion, the kinetic 

 and the pyknotic. Both theories agree that we have 

 succeeded in reducing all the different forces of nature 

 to one common orginal force ; gravity and chemical 

 action, electricity and magnetism, light and heat, etc., 

 are only different manifestations, forms, or dynamodes, 

 of a single primitive force (prodynamis) . This funda- 

 mental force is generally conceived as a vibratory 



