THE MECHANICAL CONCEPTION OP NATURE. 



235 



There is a case kaowu of the brain of a washerwoman in Germany 

 which weighed 64 ounces (greater than Cuvier's), and she was 

 known to possess no remarkable intelligence. I have to notice one 

 or two points of interest in this paper. In the closing sentence of 

 the first paragraph on page 220 the author says : " A machine 

 is a contrivance for getting some kind of motion or work out of it m 

 the course of its transformations ; and the mechanical conception 

 of nature signifies that all the physical movements and phenomena 

 of the universe have been derived from the interaction of the 

 matter and energy which are its constituent factors." *■' All the 

 physical movements," and it goes on to say, " this theory may be 

 held in a theistic or an atheistic sense." Then there is another 

 sentence on the last page but one of the paper being summary 

 No. 1. "It is actually or provisionally established" (it is the 

 mechanical conception of nature that is being summarised), " save 

 as to the origin of matter, of energy, of life, of animal intelligence 

 and the body and soul of man." I presume those are the organs 

 he is referi'ing to. 



The point 1 should like to bring out and emphasise is that life 

 in its action, as well as in its origin, is not mechanical. Life is a 

 power that directs the movement of bioplasm or protoplasm in a 

 certain way. The very fact of saying " I am " at once transcends 

 the mechanical conception of nature. The world and life are not 

 mechanical toys of superior construction, but a great deal more ; 

 nor, on the other hand, though recognising a beginning and an 

 end, is the recent description of the universe by Professor Huxley 

 a connect or adequate one : " Natural knowledge tends more and 

 more to the conclusion that all the choir of heaven, and furniture 

 of the earth are the transitory forms of parcels of cosmos substance 

 wending their way along the road of evolution from nebulous 

 potentiality back to the indefinite latency from which they arose." 



Law is not a force — only an observed sequence, and the reason 

 why there is so little apparent change, and that these natural laws 

 are so fixed, differing thus from human laws, such as the English 

 common law, is because of the perfect wisdom that has the order- 

 ing of them. If we define motion it implies energy, and energy 

 implies will, and will implies mind. Inertia is the property of all 

 matter, but energy and action are the properties of all mind. 

 Nothing must be ; nor can we say that anything is supernatural. 

 Natural laws may act regularly for any time and then change. An 



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