the Fundamental Problem of Nature. 13 



foreign to our present purpose to enter into the consideration of 

 this distinction in relation to mental phenomena. This I have 

 done at considerable length in a work on the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of Theism, published several years ago*, to which I beg 

 to refer any who may be interested in this aspect of the subject. 

 What is the cause f of determination? What is that some- 

 thing which determines the energies of the universe and guides 

 the motion of the material particles ? That this is the all-impor- 

 tant question, whether as regards life- theories, theism, or evolu- 

 tion, will be still more obvious after considering the next and 

 third proposition to which we are led, viz. : — 



(3) All the Energies and Forces of nature are probably the same, 

 and differ only in regard to their modes of operation. 



This proposition follows as a consequence from the principle 

 of the Conservation of Energy, viz. that the sum total of the 

 energies in nature remains constant, the amount neither being 

 increased nor diminished. 



Suppose now that two substances (say, oxygen and hy- 

 drogen) combine chemically. Heat is evolved as a consequence. 

 The energy in the form of heat is derived from the energy in the 

 form of chemical combination. The energy which disappears 

 in chemical combination reappears as heat. We have first 

 chemical energy and then heat ; not first annihilation of che- 

 mical energy and then creation of heat. The energy which now 

 appears as heat is the self-same energy which previously existed 

 as chemical energy. The energy has only changed its form, and 

 nothing more. 



Suppose the heat to be applied to move a machine and to 

 perform mechanical work. What appears as mechanical energy 

 (mechanical motion) disappears as heat ; and the energy stored 

 up potentially as work performed, say, in the raising of a weight, 

 is the self-same energy which previously existed as chemical 

 energy and then as heat. The same holds true whatever may 

 be the number of the transformations. Chemical combination 

 will produce an electric current ; the electric current will pro- 

 duce magnetism ; and the magnetism will produce motion in a 

 machine ; and the machine will generate heat or perform work. 



* The Philosophy of Theism. Ward and Co., 185?. 



t The term Cause is by some writers arbitrarily restricted to force or 

 energy. It is assumed that every effect must be the result of an exertion 

 of power. Of course I do not here use the term in this narrow and restricted 

 sense. To affirm that force, and only force, is cause, and that every event 

 every thing which comes to pass must be produced by an exertion of power^ 

 is to beg the whole matter in dispute -, for the very point I have been en- 

 deavouring to prove is, that force, or the exertion of power, cannot possibly 

 be the cause of the determination of motion. 



