EDITOR'S TABLE, 



495 



force, its tension or motion. ... It is im- 

 possible, therefore, to construct matter by 

 a mere synthesis of forces." 



Now, as all conceptions result from 

 motion in the brain, it is self-evident that 

 motion is the primordial reality whence 

 all concepts arise, and that different con- 

 ceptions of realities are solely different 

 modes of motion, each distinct attribute 

 being a distinct mode, and modified attri- 

 butes are modified modes. Therefore a 

 conception of matter, mass, inertia, or mo- 

 mentum, being solely a product of motion 

 in the brain, and a conception of color 

 being solely a product of motion in the 

 brain, it is again self-evident that the only 

 possible difference, between the primordial 

 realities we call inertia and color, is differ- 

 ence in modes of motion. 



Hence it is seen that the idea — almost 



universal — that inertia, or momentum, ne- 

 cessarily coexists with motion, may have 

 no foundation in fact ; its error being fur- 

 ther evidenced by our non-perception of 

 their coexistence in the invisible, or molec- 

 ular motions. In fact, inertia or momen- 

 tum is only perceived in that single mode 

 of motion which produces the sensation of 

 touch ; and which we designate as mechani- 

 cal or mass-motion. 



But whether or not momentum neces- 

 sarily accompanies motion, it was shown 

 above that the same reason for conceiving 

 color to be solely a mode of motion equally 

 obtains in our conception of matter, mass, 

 or inertia, as a mode of motion ; and that 

 " all the reality we know " exists, primarily, 

 in changing, but ever-existing, relations and 

 contrasts of modes of motion. 



A. Arnold. 



EDITORS TABLE. 



AGA8SIZ. 



OUR great naturalist has finished 

 his work and passed away. His 

 loss will be felt throughout the scientific 

 world, and will be deeply lamented be- 

 yond the circles of science in all parts 

 of our own country. Although he had 

 accomplished much during a long and 

 active Hfe, he entertained no thought 

 of rest, but was still full of hope, am- 

 bition, and large plans of labor, such as 

 belong to the prime of manhood. But 

 his physical powers at last gave way, 

 and his career terminated, we might 

 almost say prematurely, at the age of 

 sixty -six. Of Prof. Agassiz's more 

 strictly scientific labors we shall take 

 an early opportunity to speak ; we can 

 here only briefly refer to some of the 

 leading features of his career and char- 

 acter. 



Prof. Agassiz was by descent a 

 Frenchman, his , family being among 

 the Huguenots who were driven from 

 France by the revocation of the Edict 

 of Nantes, in the year 1685, and took 

 refuge in Switzerland. He came of a 



theological stock, being derived from 

 six lineal generations of clergymen. 

 He was born in 1807, the year that the 

 first steamboat started on the Hudson, 

 and when Humboldt, Cuvier, and Na- 

 poleon, were thirty-eight years of age. 

 It has been Prof. Agassiz's fortune 

 to take a very conspicuous part in the 

 scientific work of the present time. 

 The Old World gave him his education, 

 and the New World the best opportu- 

 nity of using it. He was early and 

 powerfully attracted to the study of 

 Nature, while his mind was moulded 

 and matured through intimate inter- 

 course with the most illustrious men 

 of science in Europe. He did his chief 

 original work, and developed the views 

 with which his name will be mainly 

 associated, in his youth and middle life, 

 and at the age of thirty-nine he left the 

 continent, where scientific men abound- 

 ed, and took up his residence m a new 

 country where they were wanted, and 

 where the opportunities, both of enter- 

 ing unexplored fields of investigation 

 and of drawing men and institutions 



