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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, more 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 
