60 
C. L, Herrick 
as the externals are concerned, the various forms of force are 
incommensurable. There is no way to show that so many foot- 
pounds = so many calories. All that we mean is that these 
cohere in a system in such a way that such and such phenomena 
in one domain result from such and such transformations in the 
other. If twice as many foot-pounds had been found to equal the 
calories, we should have been in no way surprised. The point is 
that all energy is related to all other energy : there is an organism. 
The question might be asked (in fact it has been asked) 
^^How is it possible to get the resistance or limitation necessary 
for the objects of our experience out of pure energy?’’ ^Ts the 
element of tension and opposition in your very conception of 
energy?” 
The reply to this should be based upon an examination of the 
nature of the energy concept more detailed than is germane to our 
present purpose. The difficulty is, probably, like nearly all 
philosophical perplexities, a result of our unhappy logical faculty 
for splitting things that ought not to be divided. We may un- 
doubtedly think of the word, ^^doing,” apart from the expres- 
sion, “doing of something,” but it is to be doubted whether 
we can think of pure energy at all. We think by ^'affirming 
attribute.” It is still more energetically to be insisted thad no 
real severance of the doing from the thing done is permissible. 
It is the old matter fallacy or the cause-effect fallacy in a new 
guise. If energy is to be set up in the place of matter as a power 
behind the throne let us alone and we will return to our idols. 
Viewed from a physical point of view, given no resistance to 
action, there is no energy. If we mean anything by energy, it 
must be valid in that it is acting. If the sum-total of universal 
energy were in like phase, it would be the same as if there were no 
energy so far as making a universe is concerned. Herbert Spen- 
cer has not lived in vain. Pure being is the same as non-being. 
We have had our Hegel. A non-acting deity would not even 
potentially be a God. 
Practically, energy is called into and remains in existence only 
under condition of resistance. Resistance is varied and gives 
rise to mode in energy. The writer has defined creation as the self- 
limitation of creative power. This is not subject to further analy- 
sis. Having no experience with universal or infinite modes of 
Monist, January, 1905, pp. 85-86. 
