THE ORIGIN OF MAN 201 



" matter " has arisen from the redisposition of 

 force. 



Matter, then, is force, and nothing but force — 

 nothing but mental effects of a certain kind, pro- 

 duced by forces which are neither visible nor pon- 

 derable. All the whirling worlds, all the dancing 

 atoms, are merely our subjective projections of 

 various forms of force impinging upon us. 



Matter may be quite well pictured as vacuity 

 bounded by force. " Immaterial as the ether 

 seems to be," wrote Karl Pearson, " we might even 

 suggest the possibiHty that an atom is "a small 

 portion of space in which there is no ether, or, in 

 other words, void of anything, even the immaterial 

 ether. A theory which supposes the boundaries 

 of these voids to be endowed with a certain 

 amount of energy will indeed account for some of 

 the phenomena of gravitation and cohesion. I 

 only refer to this theory as showing how delusive 

 may be the popular conceptions of matter ; what 

 we term the atom, the ultimate basis of matter, 

 may be the negation of all that is currently called 

 material." 



And if we be asked what is meant by force, 

 the spiritual position brightens. Force, in its 

 ultimate analysis, is conscious motion resulting in new 

 conscious experience. We raise a finger and press 

 it on the eye : the conscious movement is followed 



