Motion, the Natural State of Matter. 153 



It has been said that we come to the knowledge of mat- 

 ter by resistance. 



The mind can conceive of one infinitely small point hav- 

 ing infinite velocity, being not only apparently in all the 

 parts of the circumference, but in all the interior parts of a 

 disk at the same time ; but as such a velocity is necessarily 

 always the same, so it is evident that phenomena like those 

 objective to us, could not be thus constituted, for there could 

 be no resistance. One point projected with infinite volocity, 

 and having an exclusive existence, could not resist itself. 

 Its velocity could not overtake itself because all the parts 

 of the line of motion are of the same degree of velocity. 



To produce resistance there must be more than one body, 

 one moving with one degree of velocity, another moving 

 with a different degree of velocity would constitute a resis- 

 tance when meeting. The greater velocity would repel the 

 lesser. 



Motion appears to be a necessary condition of both light 

 and heat. Light is projected from the sun. Heat is projec- 

 ted from calorific bodies. They are both reflected from sur- 

 faces. The rays of light coming with a velocity of one hun- 

 dred and seventy thousand miles in a second, pass through 

 glass into opaque bodies. Yet being greatly diverged, they 

 do not disintegrate bodies by their velocity. They fall with 

 a mild influence upon surfaces, and must be concentrated be- 

 fore they are destructive. Why is the sensation of heat 

 more intense than the sensation produced by light? Is it 

 because the rays projected from a fire, do not diverge, are 

 concentrated, and act in a mass ? In proportion as we recede 

 from the source of the heat, is the force of the sensation. 



If light and heat were attenuated states of the same pow- 

 er why do we not see a hot iron in a dark room ? Is it be- 

 cause the heat or light in the body, in its way to the surface 

 is obstructed, and not coming out in parallel lines cannot be 

 visible ? When the calorific quantity is increased, the at- 

 mosphere in contact with the surface being charged, the 

 rays come in parallel lines and are visible. 



If all the rays which fall upon bodies, were reflected back, 

 would they not be so brilliant that it would be painful to look 

 upon them? Supposing bodies to absorb the greater portion 

 of the light which falls on them, we have thus a source for 

 the maintenance of animal heat, and for the heat which 

 is found latent in all bodies. What becomes of the vast 



Vol. XVI.— No. 1. 20 



