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We do not pretend to say that the common conception of 

 matter is beset with no difficulties. But it seems infinitely 

 easier to conceive of matter as being an accumulation of 

 minute molecules, each having the same properties as are 

 possessed by the mass. These properties — attraction, co- 

 hesion, inertia, &c., — may be conceived to have been as- 

 signed to it at its creation, and, acting in definite modes, 

 constitute what are called the laws of smatter. But fortun- 

 ately for the scientific investigator, it matters but little 

 what conception he may form of the nature and origination 

 of matter. He investigates and is concerned with, not so 

 much the nature of matter as its external properties and 

 affinities. It is by these properties that matter comes in 

 contact with him as a living and sentient being. It is by 

 turning these properties to account, taking advantage of 

 the active and acting tendencies of the material creation, 

 that he is able to adapt it to his purposes and wants. Hence 

 man's attention and scrutiny are first arrested by the exter- 

 nal and sensible properties of matter. From these he in- 

 vestigates inward, reaching by means of transformations, 

 tests and ordeals the more hidden and less obvious proper- 

 ties. All this time, his progress is not at all facilitated or 

 retarded or modified by any theoretical views he may form 

 about the nature of matter. If his theory is wrong, his 

 experiments and conclusions may still be right. Not so in 

 the a priori method of investigation. Here, an error in the 

 fundamental principles must inevitably lead to the gravest 

 error in the result. If we attempt to deduce the laws of 

 matter from a certain first principle, and from the imper- 

 fection of our insight commit an error in this principle, 

 must it not follow that the laws so deduced will be fatally 

 tinctured with the same error ? And further, since this in- 

 vestigation is conducted totally by ratiocination, and can 

 have no check or correction from experiment or observa- 

 tion, even allowing the correctness of the fundamental 

 principle, must not the result be affected with all the pro- 



