THE ORIGIN OF MAN 199 



matter inhered ; but this something is immaterial. 

 According to theory, it is imponderable, and yet 

 more rigid than steel ; and though more rigid than 

 steel, the planets pass through it without friction. 

 We cannot weigh ether, we cannot see it, we cannot 

 conceive it ; and when we analyse matter into ether 

 waves we dematerialise it ; we prove that the tactile, 

 and visual, and muscular, and other sensations 

 which give rise to the phenomena matter are pro- 

 ducts of force, and that when the force is altered or 

 abolished the phenomenon is altered or abolished too. 

 Immaterial energy may seem inconceivable, but 

 nevertheless it is a scientific fact, and it seems in- 

 conceivable, simply because the forces with which 

 we are most familiar are forces in material form^ 

 and because we have believed, despite Berkeley, 

 that the properties of matter are substantial — that 

 there is something besides the sensations it implies, 

 something in which the properties inhere. But 

 matter is only an idea^ caused by tactile, and visual, 

 and muscular sensations produced by force. It 

 is not something called matter or the substance 

 of matter that makes us see black or white, or 

 feel heat or cold ; on the contrary, it is these as- 

 sociated subjective sensations that cause the idea 

 " matter," and these sensations, again, are caused by 

 force, and may be altered by altering the direction 

 or velocity of the forces. 



