

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



15 



itself indestructible, then, of course^ it must follow as 

 pol^j-j , ,' an a priori necessity that forces, or the attributes of 

 f rnn^ . ^ matter, are also indestructible 1. As Professor Faraday 



St 



urther lik 

 s show that 1 

 tcrnal structt 



expresses it ^, 'a particle of oxygen is ever a particle 



of oxygen — nothing can in the least wear it. 



If it 



enter into combination and disappear as oxygen — if 



it pass 



through 



a thousand combinations, animal 



^^nalstf; vegetable, and mineral — if it lie hid for a thousand 



years, and then be evolved, it is oxygen with its first 



s magnetic 



' possibilities qualities. Neither 



It has all its original 



3r additional: force, and only that ; the amount of force which it dis- 

 vork. engaged when hiding itself has again to be employed 



■ the facts fa in a reverse direction when it is set at liberty 



=sistible belit Just as the chemist owes all the perfection of his ex- 



ts modes, R periments to his dependence on the certainty of gravita- 



As Mr. HeA ^^o^ applied by the balance, so may the physical philo- 



amountstot sopher expect to find the greatest security and the 



ital evidf ^^"^ost aid in the principle of the conservation of force. 



at there can ^ 



1 Those who wish to follow this subject further, and to understand 

 what are its ultimate implications, cannot do better than read chapters 



m 



nk 



ending in' 



;ted in^P^'^^ ^^--i^- of Mr. Herbert Spencer's ' First Principles.' They will then see 



IS 



r 



I 



out 



derived, 

 that the 



suit; 



re 



Tiani 



ifestatio" 



that 'pershtence of force' m really the most ultimate notion, on which the 

 doctrine of the ' indestructibility of matter ' as well as that of the 

 ' continuity of motion ' are alike dependent. He says :— ' By the Per- 

 sistence of Force, we really mean the persistence of some power which 

 transcends our knowledge and conception. The manifestations either 

 as occurring in ourselves or outside of us do not pAsist ; but that 



nes 



.^g yeaCt" which persists is the Unknown Cause of these manifestations. In other 



words, asserting the persistence of force is but another mode of asserting 



^ara 



ble^^ 



an Unconditional Reality, without beginning or end.'— p. 255, ist edit. 

 * ' Researches in Chemistry,' pp. 454, 459. 



,n 



d if ^ 







