Conclusion 261 
for us to seize, compare, and, hence, cognise ; uncondi- 
tioned matter must, therefore, be as inconceivable by us 
as unmattered condition ;= but though we can know 
nothing about matter as apart from its conditions or states,. 
opinion has been for some time tending towards the belief 
that what we call the different states, or kinds, of matter 
are only our ways of mentally characterising and docketing 
our estimates of the different kinds of motion going on in 
this otherwise uncognisable substratum. : 
Our conception, then, concerning the nature of any 
matter depends solely upon its kind and degree of unrest, 
that is to say, on the characteristics of the vibrations that 
are going on within it. The exterior object vibrating in a 
certain way imparts some of its vibrations to our brain— 
but if the state of the thing itself depends upon its 
vibrations, it must be considered as to all intents and 
purposes the vibrations themselves—plus, of course, the 
underlying substance that is vibrating. If, for example, 
a pat of butter is a portion of the unknowable under- 
lying substance in such-and-such a state of molecular 
disturbance, and it is only by alteration of the dis- 
turbance that the substance can be altered—the dis- 
turbance of the substance is practically equivalent to 
the substance: a pat of butter is such-and-such a dis- 
turbance of the unknowable underlying substance, and 
such-and-such a disturbance of the underlying substance 
is a pat of butter. In communicating its vibrations, there- 
fore, to our brain a substance does actually communicate 
what is, as far as we are concerned, a portion of itself. 
Our perception of a thing and its attendant feeling are 
{ I am aware that attempts have been made to say that we can 
conceive a condition of matter, although there is no matter in 
connection with it—as, for example, that we can have motion with- 
out anything moving (see “ Nature,’ March 5, March 12, and April 
9, 1885)—but I think it little likely that this opinion will meet 
general approbation. 
