102 



imaginatiou alone ; while Faraday and others teach that the only 

 actual existence is Force; matter, substance, and all the rest 

 being the ideals. Professor Huxley crowns the whole, in the 

 highest imaginative flight, by fancying that matter is not 

 matter, and force is not force, but only names for certain 

 forms of consciousness I 



8. Some naturalists are never weary of sneering at philo- 

 sophers and theologians, about the haziness of their theories, 

 and the unscientific character of their teachings, and 

 pointing to their own labours as the acme of perfection ; but 

 what have we here to induce us to forsake the old paths, and 

 follow their guidance? One set asking us to believe that there 

 is only matter, another that there is only force, and a third 

 that there is neither matter nor force, but only consciousness. 

 TVe beg to decline all their separate invitations for the reasons 

 now to be assigned. After what has been said about Dr. Tyndall^s 

 hypothesis, we may pass on to the next, that Force is the only 

 Existence. On this subject Faraday writes, ''^ We know nothing 

 about matter but its forces — nothing in the creation but the 

 effect of these forces; further our sensations and perceptions 

 are not fitted to carry us ; all the rest, which we may conceive 

 we kncw^ is only imagination.^^ He taught, also, that 

 the ultimate atoms are only centres of force; or, in other 

 words, that matter and force are one and the same. We must^ 

 however, be pardoned for saying that he seems exceedingly 

 confused about the whole subject^ because elsewhere he speaks 

 of the actions of particles.''* Now, it is an utter confusion of 

 all language to speak of particles as immaterial : if we believe 

 in particles we must believe in matter, for particles are particles 

 of something ; but to say that the something is force, would be 

 a contradiction of terms. But even the very passage I have 

 quoted overturns his own hypothesis ; for if we grant, which we 

 do not, that we know nothing of matter but its forces, still this 

 allows that we do know the forces of matter, and so know matter 

 by its forces. But we know matter by its qualities, as well as 

 by its powers, especially by that of extension, which cannot be 

 called a power. As Dr. Mayo wrote to Faraday, The objection 

 that silver must vanish if its forces are abstracted, may prove 

 the necessity of forces to our conception of silver, but does not 

 disprove the necessity of silver to our conception of its 

 forces.'^ To this we may add, that after the distinctive forces 

 were abstracted, it might cease to exist as silver, but it would 

 still exist as matter, possessing the quahty of extension. Mr. 

 Wallace takes up the strain, and strikes a higher note, affirming 

 that "matter is essentially force, and nothing but force; is, in 

 fact, philosophically inconceivable ; and that force is will, and 



