Pleasant Ways in Science. 347 



It is by establishing the kind of equilibrium we have 

 described that bodies are preserved as wholes, notwithstanding 

 the motion of their parts, or the change of their constituent 

 atoms. The inorganic world affords us continual instances of 

 the first of these actions, and the organic world of the second. 

 In the latter there is an approximate equilibrium of waste and 

 supply. The two processes are seldom equal. When the 

 supply predominates in a healthy individual, growth is obtained ; 

 and when the waste predominates, dissolution ensues. 



The social world has its equilibriums, stable and unstable, 



like the physical and the chemical worlds. In societies in 



which rights are respected and duties performed, the stable 



equilibrium is attained ; and if disturbance ensues, and the 



fabric shakes under hostile assaults, it may still regain its 



condition of individual activity and collective repose ; while in 



other societies in which injustice is the predominant force, the 



resulting equilibrium of despotism is unstable, and when a shock 



comes the 



" Castles topple on their warders' heads." 



It has been well said that u harmonious motion is divine 

 repose." Absolute rest, with its negations, so appalling to the 

 European mind, constitutes the highest felicity of the Buddhist ; 

 but in a healthy human being, a higher kind of rest is achieved 

 in the compensating movements and harmonious working of 

 divers faculties. The muscular system relieves the nervous, the 

 nervous excites the muscular ; the affections not only stimulate 

 the intellect, but they relieve its labours ; and by a grateful 

 alternation of different modes of action, life's varied functions 

 are performed in due season, so that to exist is to enjoy. 



