372 Past Changes in the Universe . July, 
absence of realisation of the mechanical fitness of the scheme 
due to attention not having been given to the subjedt. What 
may be justly regarded as occult are the effedts themselves 
(o r the developments of motion in matter, occurring on 
every hand) without any explanation at all. Since the store 
of energy simply consists of finely subdivided matter in a 
state of rapid motion, and since it is obviously just as easy 
to reason of matter of one dimension as of another, there 
can be nothing whatever occult about the subjedt at all. 
The conclusion deducible with certainty beforehand that 
this store of motion — if it did exist in space — would be con- 
cealed , ought to go far to remove all preliminary doubts as 
to its existence ; and unless we are ready to surrender the 
right of using our reason, the developments of motion oc- 
curring on all sides (as combustion, the detonation of 
explosives, and the varied movements developed in masses 
and molecules of matter, &c.) are utterly inexplicable with- 
out the existence of this store of motion in space. Minuteness 
of size of the particles is evidently adapted to rapidity of mo- 
tion, and this rapidity of motion is itself essential to an intense 
store of energy, and this rapidity of motion, combined with 
minuteness of size, obviously and necessarily renders the 
motion of the particles concealed ; indeed the more perfect 
the concealment, the higher should we be warranted in esti- 
mating the intensity of the store of energy to be (from the 
known fa< 5 t that the higher the velocity of the component 
particles, the more impalpable does the medium become). 
It is very important, therefore, to keep in view that — inde- 
pendently of all question of the existence of this store of 
energy in space — it is so far an indisputable fadt that if it 
did exist it would be perfectly concealed. There can there- 
fore be no logical a priori reason for doubting its existence, 
and the admirable manner in which (on analysis) the me- 
chanical conditions show themselves to be adapted to allow 
the existence of an available store of energy in space, to 
any intensity consistent with concealment, and in harmony 
with the conditions of life, ought to render the contempla- 
tion of the problem one of great mechanical interest. 
Surely, for example, to realise how the motion is transferred 
from the concealed store of motion in space to a mass of 
gunpowder (as a shell for instance) in the adt of explosion, 
is a problem of the highest mechanical interest, and no one 
surely would mistake theories which may serve as a conve- 
nient temporary refuge in the absence of any conception of 
the process involved, as explanations of the process involved. 
Clearness of conception is the test of truth, and constitutes 
