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sage, he conceives to be the antagonism of two simple 



» x — mm. 



activities at a point in space. The accumulation of these 

 pairs of activities constitute, according to this hypothesis, 

 masses of matter. We have called this an hypothesis, but 

 our author would be far from thanking us for bestowing so 

 humble a name upon his system. If the author had pro- 

 posed his system as an hypothesis, by which he claimed to 

 be able to explain more satisfactorily than by the common 

 hypothesis, the phenomena of nature, we would not have 

 complained. Men would have listened with profound re- 

 spect to what he had to propose, and would gladly have 

 greeted his success in giving a more complete explanation 

 to the complicated and difficult questions of physical na- 

 ture. Hypotheses have been before proposed, discussed 

 and adopted or rejected in this spirit. The law of gravi- 

 tation was presented to the world as an hypothesis by which 

 certain phenomena could be explained. Step by step the 

 facts of the attraction of matter were found to be reducible 

 in this law, and now from the facts that no, phenomena are 

 known to conflict with this hypothesis, aud that all known 

 phenomena included in it are fully explained by it, it is 

 universally conceded to be an established law. It was in a 

 similar spirit, that the wave theory of light was proposed, 

 discussed and finally adopted. And we say therefore that 

 if the author had presented his theory of matter in the 

 same way, and endeavored to establish its truth by a wide 

 and thorough induction of facts, scientific men would have 

 listened with respect. 



But it is in no such submissive and modest attitude that 

 Dr. Hickok comes before the world. He claims the absolute 

 truth of his conception of matter. It is true because the 

 Rational Insight so decides. From the eternal laws of rea- 

 son it is evident that a point of matter is made up of two 



