i §79-j 
Matter Dead. 
151 
whilst there are some who speak amongst us as if they knew 
them. Men assert the power of matter who have not to 
themselves clearly defined what matter is. Most men, even 
scientific men, speak as if it were only the substances known 
to us in chemistry as “ the elements.” Some will allow 
both elements and forces, or ponderable and imponderable 
matter, the imponderable adting as forces ; but it is probably 
the opinion most prevalent that matter and force are one. 
To use the words of one of the most recent volumes, by a 
scientific man of careful thought , — “ Wherever matter 
exists, energy (either potential or adtive) also exists (or 
matterjs the seat of energy) — is another truth of the widest 
kind, based upon universal experience, and is inferred from 
the fadt that energy has never been observed except in con- 
nection with matter; i.e., in connection with that which 
possesses weight.” 
John Dalton — We cast the seeds into the earth, and they 
grow, collecting matter willingly, whilst matter readily flows 
to them. A tree grows, and we throw it into the fire ; it 
adts with violence, and matter again collects about it and 
carries off all that had been so laboriously brought together. 
Surely matter is alive. 
Is not the world in a constant state of motion itself, whilst 
its surface is restless, and much of it extremely agitated ? 
Surely, too, every element is vigorous, scarcely any to be 
found in freedom, all attached servilely to some other, and 
by constant changings keeping up the proof of vitality. 
This world is far apart from other worlds, and yet it keeps in 
constant communication with them and shows its sympathy, 
which can only exist because of its life. 
The elements in many cases cling violently to each other, 
and combination is accompanied by burning heat, which 
heat again goes to set other bodies in motion. Matter is 
therefore not only powerful, but it is a reservoir of power. 
So adtive is matter that if it is freed from the violence of 
cohesive enchainment, as in a state of gas, every particle 
raves continually, and is in eternal wildest motion as con- 
stantly as the moving planets, if not so carefully regulated 
in every step. Here is eternal motion ; here is an atom 
with an evident endowment of eternal life. If it has that 
now, must its eternity not have existed in the past also ? 
Indeed so full of activity is matter, that even when atoms 
are in combination and are apparently at rest, in the centre 
even of the everlasting hills, they are for ever revolving or 
in agitation in their very limited sphere. 
Roger Bacon — Is all this true ? This system has brought 
