THE LAWS OF LIFE. 245 



action. But there is in the pendulum no " ascending 

 force." 



II. This view of vital action is conformable to the 

 general course of nature. The entire succession of 

 events, which we call the course of nature, involves 

 essentially the same elements as those which we have 

 fouiicTm life, namely, an action and a resistance. A 

 force, or form of action, resisted, assumes of neces- 

 sity another direction or another form. This is the 

 law, the results of which have been grouped under 

 the denomination of the correlation or conversion of 

 the forces. That motion takes the direction of least 

 resistance, in one aspect of the case, embraces the 

 whole. It is not difficult to trace the working of this 

 law so far as our knowledge is exact and definite. It 

 becomes obscure precisely where our ideas lose their 

 distinctness. 



Motion, if it be resisted, becomes heat or light, or 

 some other force, but only on condition that it be 

 resisted. Heat, if its transmission or continuance be 

 resisted, assumes other forms ; thus it passes freely 

 through a homogeneous metal and undergoes no 

 change, but if forcibly applied to a non-conductor, as 



