EL. B. Hunt on the Nature of Forces. 239 
scribe to an emanatio 
points or nuclei, all the forces which follow the Newtonian law. 
best be estimated by inquiring into the chance of an original 
static creation being based on the inverse duplicate ratio. rl- 
Between these two conceptions, each of which is a geometri- 
eal possibility, this consideration of chances almost compels us to 
choose the idea of emanation. When too we consider the ex- 
ceeding complexity of mechanism and the great metaphysical 
difficulties involved in the idea of coexistence, and when we ob- 
rectly to the emanative outward transmission of the force or agen- 
ty from its originating central points or nuclei. As all known 
Ptimary forces do in fact follow this law when acting through 
sensible distances, the inference follows that all these forces are 
. 
actually emanative. 
offered by forces following the Newtonian law. ‘To assume that 
the same primary force is attractive at one distance and repulsive 
at another is like saying that yes becomes no by a change of lat- 
tude. The expedient of leading one primary force through va- 
ous alternations of attraction and repulsion, as is apparently 
one in the theory of spheres of force, must to a reasoning mind 
“ppear too conveniently Protean and time-serving to be accepted 
as any thing better than the fig-leaf of our ignorance. We really 
know of but one type of force, and that one has a law which 
Means emanation ; yet speculation has run riot among all possible 
‘alos of force decrease, and the force entity has been treated as a 
