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viction forced upon our minds that this substance possesses, by 

 virtue of its constitution, power to produce certain eflfects ? 



7. But when power is predicated of anything but a person, we 

 must never think that the power originates the effect or change, in 

 the sense in which an intelligent agent originates his volition. We 

 are,however, compelled to think that the volitions of agents supply 

 the necessary conditions of the action of all secondary powers ; 

 and consequently all material changes, or exercises of power, 

 must be referred back to the volition of an intelligent agent. 

 We therefore define Force to be the power of originating or 

 causing motion. Faraday seems to be, at first sight, in 

 harmony with this when he says : What I mean by the word 

 ' force ' is the source or sources of all possible actions of the 

 particles or materials of the universe; being often called the 

 powers of nature, when spoken of in respect of the different 

 manners in which these effects are shown.^'' This is capable of 

 a great variety of meaning, accordingly as we understand the 

 word '''source.^^ If by sources we mean volitions, in the sense 

 just explained, he is correct ; but if he mean, as we believe he 

 does, pre-existing action only, he is not in accord with con- 

 sciousness ; for he would himself acknowledge that the will of 

 God is the primary source of all possible actions ; and, in 

 accordance with that will, our volitions are sources also. He 

 however says, " Force cannot act, then cease to act, then act, 

 then cease to act, without being otherwise disposed of.''' Now, 

 it is evident that force, according to his own definition, may act 

 and then cease to act ; for we can think the source of action 

 either as producing action or as quiescent. We can think 

 power either as exerted or as unexerted. W^e are therefore 

 justified in affirming that motion may at any time be produced 

 by matter, th'e necessary conditions being supplied ; that the 

 power to do this, called Force, has a real existence, and is not a 

 fancy of the imagination, as Professor Tyndall would tell us, 

 when he says that without imagination the ^^soul of force would 

 be dislodged from our universe.'' If force be the soul of the 

 material universe, it was not our imagination that placed it 

 there, nor would it die though our imagination ceased to exist. 

 Imagination may combine old experiences into new groupings; 

 may from the quarry of memory draw the materials for a new 

 building, but has no power to create both stone and structure. 



The scientific use of the imagination " seems, however, to lead 

 to very contradictory results, enough to sadly puzzle any 

 student of physics, till he discover that they are only imaginary 

 — the products of an imagination unscientifically misused. 

 Dr. Tvndall, for example, teaches, as we have seen, that force is 

 only an ideal thing — the product of a scientific use of 'he 



