THE CONSTITUTION OF MATTER. 13 
Pascal said of certain fundamental notions of the same 
order: “Urging investigation further and further, we 
necessarily arrive at primitive words which cannot be de- 
fined, or at principles so clear that we can find no others 
which are clearer.”” When we have reached these prin- 
ciples, nothing remains but to study one’s self with pro- 
foundest meditation, not striving to give an image to those 
things whose essence is that they cannot be imagined, 
From the most general and abstract point of view, then, 
matter is at once form and force, that is, there is no essen- 
tial difference between these two modes of substance. 
Form is simply force circumscribed, condensed. Force is 
simply form indefinite, diffused. Such is the net result of 
the methodical inquiries of modern science, and one which 
forces itself on our minds, apart from any svstematic pre- 
meditation. It is of consequence to add that the merit of 
having formulated it very clearly and noted its importance 
belongs to French contemporary philosophers, particularly 
to Charles Lévéque and Paul Janet. 
II. 
If the web of things, the essence of matter, is one 
single substance, who was the Orpheus under whose spell 
these materials gathered, ranged, and diversified them- 
selves into natures of so many kinds? And, first of all, 
how can the extension of bodies proceed from an assem- 
bling of unextended principles? The answer to this first 
question does not seem difficult to us. Extension exists 
prior to matter. They are two distinct things, without any 
relation of causality or finality. Matter no more proceeds 
from extension than extension proceeds from matter. This 
simple remark suffices to settle the difficulty of conceiving 
how the dimension of objects results from a group of dy- 
namic points which have no dimension. Extension exist- 
ing before every thing else, itis quite clear that, when 
