FIRST LAWS OF SCIENCE OF POWER 185 



The third stage is that in which we are now en- 

 gaged, in which the laws of the social integration 

 in life are being defined similarly in terras of 

 Power. 



To understand the application of the doctrine 

 of Power to the current personal and collective 

 activities of the modern world of civilization, it is 

 desirable to have a firm grasp of a few leading 

 principles. The two most essential matters are 

 (i) to understand the distinction to be made 

 between Force and Power; and (2) to understand 

 the nature of the fundamental difference between 

 the controlling law of the individual integration 

 and the controlling law of the social integration. 



Now Force and Power are words continually 

 used loosely and often as interconvertible terms 

 in the West. 1 In this chapter, and in future, they 

 will be used by me strictly hi the sense in which 

 they are here defined. 



Force or Energy is the characteristic or constituent 

 quality of the material universe. Its modes may 

 be changed, but the quantity thereof in the universe 

 cannot be taken from nor added to. 



The distinction between Force and Power is 

 fundamental. 



1 Cf. Newton's Principia, Introduction to Book III., or the 

 example referred to by Karl Pearson. Ethic of Free Thought, 

 p. 32- 



