376 The Evolution of Beauty . [July? 
organic phenomena by going a step lower in the chain of 
causation ? By turning our attention to the internal sources 
of activity, as well as to external influences, and by endea- 
vouring to estimate each faCtor at its true value ? 
We have no knowledge of Matter, except as accompanied 
by Force. The ultimate atoms we imagine to be related to 
each other by attractions and repulsions. The compound 
molecule is the seat of equally compound Forces. The 
possibility of such a perfect balance of Forces as to produce 
absolute rest may be argued, but can scarcely be proved, 
and a probability remains that no such thing as absolute 
rest is known throughout the Universe. Everywhere the 
concomitant of Force is motion or activity, either atomic, 
molecular, or molar ; and the universal character of such 
activity is alternate acceleration and retardation. 
We need not discuss the problem whether the Force or 
the Matter is the aCtual substans. The same general laws 
of activity hold good both for Matter and Mind, and one of 
the most fundamental of these laws is that of alternate 
acceleration and retardation, of expansion and compression, 
of increase and decrease, whether in relation to time, to 
space, or to intensity. In modern terminology this type of 
activity is known as wave-motion, and the total activity of 
the Universe, as far as we can penetrate it, is made up 
of such waves, in what may be called — without extravagant 
metaphor — an “ infinite ” variety. 
The wave form originates in the compound aCtion of 
initial impulse with surrounding resistances. Both factors 
are essential, and if space is everywhere occupied by matter, 
or is everywhere under the influence of attractions and 
repulsions, there can be no initial impulse which is not 
instantly met by resistance, no motion therefore which does 
not partake of the wave character. 
An initial impulse, if unresisted, would, it is supposed, 
continue with unvarying velocity and direction through 
space and time for ever. But by the aCtion of surrounding 
resistances, which are themselves perhaps but modifications 
of other initial impulses, its equilibrium is upset, its velo- 
cities made inconstant, its direction and intensity altered, 
divided, scattered, or concentrated, in a thousand different 
ways. How the initial impulses originated we need not 
inquire. We have to deal with a Universe in which they 
have been operating practically for infinite time, and to 
estimate as accurately as we can their present condition. 
It seems correct to speak of these impulses as separate 
and individual phenomena, because, although the whole 
