69 
one of the chief points in this paper. If I am right, his System 
is broken into two, and that means that, as a Philosophy, it is 
destroyed. In First Principles,^^ in the chapter on the 
Transformation and Equivalence of Forces,^^ he has been 
showing that all the changes in the physical universe came 
from the solar rays. That is to say, he proves the doctrine of 
the Correlation of the Physical Forces.^^ He then proceeds 
to show that from the same force come all the organic, vital, 
and mental changes. He allows that his reasoning is hardly 
conclusive, and he therefore attempts to prove that his doctrine 
is a necessary corollary from the ^^Persistence of Force,^^ 
which, as he has proved, is a datum of consciousness. The 
following are his words : — 
Each manifestation of force can be interpreted only as the 
effect of some antecedent force ; no matter whether it be an 
inorganic action, an animal movement, a thought, or a feeling. 
Either this must be conceded, or else it must be asserted that 
our successive states of consciousness are self-created. Either 
mental energies as well as bodily ones are quantitatively corre- 
lated to certain energies expended in their production, and to 
certain other energies which they initiate ; or else nothing must 
become something, and something must become nothing. The 
alternatives are, to deny the persistence of force, or to admit 
that every physical and psychical change is generated by 
certain antecedent forces, and that from given amounts of 
such forces neither more nor less of such physical and psychical 
changes can result. And since the persistence of force, being 
a datum of consciousness, cannot be denied, its unavoidable 
corollary must be accepted.^^ * 
I have expended some hours of thought upon this passage, 
in order to make sure of not unjustly accusing a thinker like 
Mr, Spencer of faulty reasoning ; but each examination only 
makes me more certain that, for once at least, he is altogether 
illogical. Let us look at what he says, sentence by sentence. 
Each manifestation of force can be interpreted only as the 
effect of some antecedent force, no matter whether it be an 
inorganic action, an animal movement, a thought, or a feeling.’’^ 
All this we may concede, adding only this proviso, that 
as every antecedent force which generates an action must 
operate in the same region as that action, must be in eddem 
materia, and as Mr. Spencer has assured us that the antece- 
dent solar ray is at the opposite pole of being from the mental 
energy it is said to originate, we are curious to learn how this 
* First Principles, second edition, p. 221. 
