60 ueport — 1859. 



point adjacent, is an element of a straight line necessarily lying in some definite 

 direction. But to this, under the law, every successive element of motion must be 

 assimilated. The whole therefore, when viewed in reference to space, must be recti- 

 linear. And for the same reason, when viewed in reference to time, it is obvious that 

 equal portions must be described in equal times. The whole motion therefore must 

 be uniform as well as rectilinear. 



Elasticity. — But whatever possesses substance and can be distinguished from the 

 space in which it exists, must also possess form. And in reference to this attribute, the 

 law of Being or assimilation obviously provides that a form once constituted in harmony 

 with that law shall tend to perpetuate itself, shall tend to assimilate itself to itself in 

 successive moments of its existence, and consequently, if partially disturbed, shall 

 make an effort to recover its form and volume, in other words, shall be resilient or 

 elastic. Thus elasticity, instead of being wholly unconnected with inertia, presents 

 itself under our law as the inertia of form. And here it admits of being shown that 

 the form of culmination under this law, towards which every other form must tend, and 

 which all forms do attain when there is nothing in their internal structure or position 

 in nature or their history to prevent its development, is the spherical shell or cell. 



Gravitation. — But mere beings or things, units of matter or atoms, which, when 

 viewed as individuals under the Law of Being or assimilation, prove to be inert and 

 elastic, must also, when existing as a system under this law, gravitate towards each 

 other ; for, as has been stated in the announcement of the law, it is universal and 

 reciprocal. And hence two or more atoms being given within the sphere of each other's 

 agency, but at a distance from each other, it follows that each, while maintaining itself 

 to the utmost, must also tend to assimilate to itself to the utmost all the others around 

 it. Now, although in virtue of the first function of this law (which is to maintain the 

 specific character, the type, in the individual), the amount of mutual assimilation 

 effected in any given case may not be great, in so far as the form and structure of the 

 different members of the system are concerned, and such that they manifest themselves 

 only after long reras, or in some phenomenon of transient induction only, yet there is 

 no bar in the way of their being assimilated, as to the place they occupy, except the 

 inertia of the system. Each member in that system will therefore tend to assimilate 

 all the other members of the system to itself in this respect, that is, to draw or attract 

 them all into its own place, and consequently to itself. And this each must obviously 

 do with a force proportional to itself, that is, to its quantity of being or substance or 

 mass; for of material things we know nothing, and can conceive nothing but as 

 localized, individualized, limited forces, or aggregations of force, more or less. All 

 the members in a system which exist within the sphere of their mutual agency, must 

 therefore attract each other proportionally to their masses. Nor is this all the light 

 which our law throws upon the grand phenomenon of gravitation. It also determines 

 the force of gravitation at different distances from the centre. Thus, conceiving it 

 geometrically and mechanically, which is indispensable when our object is to obtain 

 a geometrical and mechanical expression, we are obliged, under the law of assimilation 

 (as is indeed commonly done under every hypothesis), to conceive of the attractive 

 force of any centre as existing around that centre in concentric spherical shells, their 

 radii and surfaces continually increasing as they recede from the centre. Now these 

 spherical shells, in order to satisfy the law of assimilation, must be all assimilated 

 to each other in the amount of attractive force which they represent; they must be 

 all dynamically equivalent to each other, be they large and remote from the centre 

 of force, or small and near that centre. But if so, it plainly follows, that, when 

 estimated in any one direction or along any one radius, the force must diminish as 

 the spherical surface or the square of its radius increases. But this is the well-known 

 law of gravitation. 



Thus the three great properties of matter, inertia, elasticity, and gravitation, show 

 themselves to be intimately and beautifully related, not arbitrarily conjoined, and. 

 such that a single conception explains them all. 



