192 LIFE IN NATURE. 



separably joined. Physical objects exert force as 

 truly as they exist ; and they do both alike only to 

 our feeling. 



So in accepting that thought of man's condition 

 which involves such a mode of feeling on our part 

 as its result, this difficulty respecting force, which 

 else meets us on the threshold of our inquiries, is 

 cleared away. The feeling of force where it is not 

 is implied beforehand in what we have already 

 learnt of ourselves and nature. 



And so we may advance unimpeded to other 

 results, which are of the greatest scientific import. 

 If the physical world is the changing appearance of 

 some unchanging existence, there must be in it a 

 perfect order through all its changes, and an essen- 

 tial identity at all times. The force apparent in it, 

 therefore, will be at all times equivalent. It will 

 change its forms, but never vary in itself; it may 

 become hidden, but it cannot cease. That necessity 

 of order which belongs to an appearance necessitates 

 this. There cannot be true variation, because an 

 appearance cannot change itself. 



Thus, not only is the apparent merging of each 



