No. XXm.] APPENDIX 325 



total changes constituting an event are performed with energy, but little 

 time is occupied; if the resistance to change is great, considerable time is 

 evinced. The sum total of all time is the representation of all the events 

 which have happened from the commencement of matter to the present 

 moment ; and the number of revolutions of the earth round the sun, or of 

 the earth upon its axis, axe generally the events which are counted as our 

 measure of time. 



Pi-om the nature of time, one preceded all subsequent events; 

 namely, the first rushing together or attraction of particles of matter, 

 which gave to every object its composition, form, and position. We 

 must look for the cause of this primary attraction to a source exti-insio 

 from matter, as it could not have caused itself to take on that power. 

 Fi'om this consideration the mind is led to contemplate an " Immaterial 

 Power," to confer this property on matter. This argument is indepen- 

 dent and altogether different from the argument of design, but this is not 

 the proper place to enter into this consideration, which I now leave to 

 your own meditations, or refer you to the seventh chapter of my 

 ' Sources of Physics,' for its further development. 



Every event from which we derive our ideas of time has a beginning, 

 the generation of a new attraction ; and an end, the destruction of a 

 former attraction ; and as events have followed since matter existed, and 

 will continne till matter shall cease, time began with matter and will 

 terminate when matter shall cease, and "The gi"eat globe, yea, all which it 

 inhabit, shall dissolve." From these views we find that time can have 

 none, — ^no, not even the feeblest quality of eternity; and that however 

 exaggeratedly it may be increased, time never becomes eternity. Time is 

 a mere repetition of events, each having a beginning and an end. Eternity 

 is not "made up of events, and has, therefore, no beginning and no end. 



I have now completed, as far as the Umited time will permit, a short 

 sketch of the views of the " Monogenesis of Physical Forces," which my 

 study of Nature and natural phenomena has forced my mind to adopt. 

 This doctrine has the merit of discarding the notions of aethers, essences, 

 imponderables, or a plnrality of forces being attached to matter, and 

 places snch vague assumptions rather amongst the mental creations of 

 the philosopher thaji amongst the realities of Nature. 



I am free to confess that this combination of physical facts and known 

 laws into one consistent doctrine was a matter of intense study and pro- 

 found thought ; but should it fortunately have the same power on your 

 minds, to render physical science of easy application, as it has had upon 

 mine, yon will pardon me for occupying your attention whilst I have 

 endeavoured to teach, that attraction acting on attracted matter is the 

 source of all force, and that, therefore, every physical force has a mono- 

 genetic origin, and when generated a truly equivalent power. 



