180 ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, ESQ., M.D., M.R.C.S., ON 



we cannot conceive force acting apart from manner and direc- 

 tion. It has been well said that the laws of nature are not 

 causes but courses. Force cannot be self-directing. More- 

 over, and this cannot bo too strongly insisted on. neither can 

 matter, direct force, or matter, or motion, or anything else ;. 

 for its primary property is INERTIA. 



The movement of a body is not determined by the action 

 of a force, but by the manner of its application. It is easy 

 to say bodies move in the direction of least resistance, or in a 

 direction determined by the resultant of the forces applied ; 

 but who applied the forces, and what determined their 

 direction, on Avhich the movement of the body depended? 



At any rate it was not another force, for that only carries 

 us a stage further back in the inquiry, and a careful con- 

 sideration will make the following statement perfectly clear, 

 " That the action of a force cannot be determined by a 

 force, nor can motion be determined (that is directed) by 

 motion." 



Look again at the results of these forces ; their action may 

 be blind, but their results are not, and tiierefore what deter- 

 mines them is not. 



No force can possibly account for the objective idea in 

 nature. 



Every atom or vortex ring must be made with forces or 

 affinities determined in definite directions and amounts,, 

 so as to form the definite and exact compounds that compose 

 this universe; indeed, we may go further and say no 

 vortex ring is conceivable without the conception of a 

 determining force that causes its revolutions. 



Sir John Herschell said, recognizing the quality of mind in 

 force, " The exact likeness of all molecules of each sort to each 

 other gives them the essential characteristics of a manufac- 

 tured article;" and it must be remembered that as far as can 

 be ascertained matter everywhere in the universe is alike, and 

 is divided into the same elementary bodies. 



Moreover, the laws and properties and forces we observe 

 and so dogmatically tabulate in the various sciences may not 

 after all be fully understood, for although the forces of nature 

 seem to be always determined in the same direction and inten- 

 sity, it may not really be so. Philosophers in the summer 

 might formulate laws from observing the properties of water, 

 all of which woiild be found to be modified unexpectedly 

 when the winter brought the first snow or ice ; and it is quite 

 possible that our little summer existence on this globe, as- 



