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published in the year 1862. There is nothing novel in the idea that there is 

 but one force in Nature, and that is an expression of the will of God. It is, 

 however, very hard to be original on any of these subjects. There may, 

 perhaps, be two persons working out the same idea at the same time, and they 

 may possibly arrive by independent routes at the same point. In that case, 

 each may think the other has copied him, whereas, in point of fact, nothing 

 of the kind has taken place. Mr. Murphy's book (which I have mentioned) 

 is full of information and close reasoning, and is, I think, moje thoroughly 

 philosophical than Herbert Spencer's book. My own notion is that 

 what is called potential energy is simply affinity having a certain 

 amount of tension. If you fasten an indiarubber cord as a spring to 

 a door, when you open the door you stretch the spring, and the tendency of 

 the spring is to draw the door to again ; but it had no such tendency until it 

 was stretched. Before the door is opened, the force possessed by the cord is 

 in abeyance, and when the strain of the opened door is not too powerful, it 

 becomes actual energy or motion ; but you require to put the motion into it 

 by putting it on the stretch. When different substances have strong 

 attraction for each other, it is just because there has been a tension of the 

 affinities ; and I think that this principle of " affinity " will explain almost 

 any of the other principles which underlie and produce the great phenomena 

 of Nature. 



Rev. T. M, Gorman. — I desire to make a few remarks on certain points 

 which appear to be of primary importance in connection with this sub- 

 ject. And, in the first place, I would observe that so long as the termi- 

 nology of the subject remains in its present vague and unsettled state, the 

 speculations of physicists must continue to be fruitless. In order to 

 arrive at a clear and distinct notion of force, we must proceed on the sure 

 path of experimental fact and rational knowledge, and, by means of these, 

 ascend by degrees to One who is the origin and spring of all force. A careful 

 study of the phenomena, and a slight effort of the reason, lead to the some- 

 what startling conclusion that force, as such, is not createable by man. Nor 

 are heat and light. The truth of this conclusion will appear evident the 

 moment we consider that these terms are employed to denote various kinds 

 of activity. Mere activity cannot be created. Apart from some real 

 substance, it is a pure abstraction. Substances which are susceptible of 

 modification are createable, and have been created. And here I wish to say 

 a word in reference to what must appear, on reflection, to be a most fallacious 

 form of expression, which has obtained a considerable degree of currency 

 among men of science in the present day, and which has an evident bearing 

 upon the subject before us. I refer to the phrase " living matter." While one 

 may easily admit that there is a loose sense in which we may use the term, 

 it must at the same time be obvious that, taken strictly, such a phrase begs 

 the question at issue. What can be meant by the life of matter ? Matter, 

 as such, is dead. Nature, as such, is dead. Life is something within, above, 

 superior to, altogether distinct from, matter. 



Rev. C. Graham. — May I take the liberty of asking the last speaker 



