252 Vital and Cosmical Energy. [May, 
is it simply the outcome of certain changes in the grey 
matter of the encephalon ? Here, when we remember the 
“ sensifacient ” power of our sensory ganglia, there seems 
but small ground for dispute ; yet we may as well see 
whether the advocates of Dualism can produce any reason- 
able argument in support of their heresy. We will take as 
our text the main thesis enunciated by Dr. Lewins, viz., 
“ the all-sufficiency of Matter to carry on its own opera- 
tions, and the consequent non-necessity of a vital or spiritual 
principle as an entity apart from the inherent energy of the 
material organism,” and we will examine the evidence which 
may be adduced for and against such a thesis. 
The old d priori argument, that Matter, being essentially 
inert, cannot originate force, falls to the ground before the 
discoveries of modern Physics and Physiology. It is, indeed, 
founded upon two baseless assumptions, one of which is 
sufficiently refuted by Newton’s formula of Universal Gravi- 
tation, and the other by modern anatomical investigations 
and reasonings "from the observed effeCt of stimulants, &c., 
and of cerebral disease or injury. 
The first fallacy, or the doCtrine of inertia, has long ceased 
to be an article of scientific faith, and is relegated to a limbo 
peopled with such ghosts as the phlogiston theory and 
Nature’s horror of a vacuum. Newton’s first law of motion, 
the very proposition chiefly relied upon as expressing and 
formulating this lack of automatic energy, really goes to 
prove that motion is a condition of matter not less natural 
than rest.* A body completely isolated for all eternity in a 
boundless vacuum would either, remain at rest for ever or 
would move uniformly in a straight line. Either event would 
be equally natural ; for the origin of equilibrium stands in 
quite as much need of explanation as the origin of move- 
ment. The former may, indeed, be represented as the 
resultant of two or more opposing and equally balanced 
forces, or, in the words of Sir John Herschel, as “ a conti- 
nual production of two opposite effects, each undoing at 
every instant what the other has done.” The latest theories 
respecting the constitution of matter require us to regard 
every molecule not merely as attracting, and thus moving or 
holding firm other molecules, but as itself in a continuous 
state of vibratory or rotatory agitation. Cohesion therefore 
represents a condition not of rest, but of intense activity. 
* Newton’s mystical statement in his letters to Dr. Bentley — “ It is incon- 
ceivable that inanimate brute matter should, without the mediation of something 
else which is not material , operate on other matter ” — is a proposition virtually 
unthinkable . 
