MATTER, SUBSTANCE, BODY. 
477 
versed in the interesting paper of Mr. Tilden, commenced in the last number of 
this Journal, or, with one exception, of commenting upon that paper. My subject 
properly ends just where that of Mr. Tilden begins. The keynote of the ob¬ 
servations I shall have to offer is this,—that I demur to the use of the word 
Matter in the sense in which it is employed by Mr. Tilden and by many men 
of science, on the ground that Matter is, or should be, conceived as homo¬ 
geneous ; and that it is really Body of the constitution of which Mr. Tilden 
treats. 
It may be answered that, as long as the terms employed by a writer are 
generally understood, further precision is needless, or even pedantic. But, 
although the three words of which we are speaking are commonly used as 
synonymous ; or, rather, though the more general and indefinite are often sub¬ 
stituted for the better defined terms,—Matter for Substance or Body, and Sub¬ 
stance again for Body,—yet this laxity, justifiable, and even commendable as 
it is in the loose undress of popular discourse, should not be tolerated in the 
well-fenced fields of science. Here, each term must be kept within its own 
ring-fence, and not be allowed to encroach upon, or intermeddle with, any 
other. Nowhere is the god Terminus so jealous and so exacting, as when he 
presides over the demarcations of scientific boundaries. Hence, as there are no 
words which are truly synonyms, it would appear expedient and even obligatory, 
when we possess a series of related words—Matter, Substance, Body which 
express three stages of the evolution of one conception (which stages may be 
represented for the occasion by such formula; as M, FM, I" M), to restrict each 
term to its own special significance, and not to use, e. < 7 ., M when we really 
mean F n M. 
Conscious that the subject of this paper is of a rather abstract and speculative 
character,—that it lies within the domain of philosophy rather than in that of 
science,_I feel justified in asking the reader’s forbearance with such deficiencies 
as are fairly due to the nature of the subject; with such, but with no others. 
The question being one of pure reasoning, being, moreover, almost destitute of the 
support to be derived from facts, and in its greater part lying beyond the bounds 
of any possible experience, it is inevitable that intellects of different conforma¬ 
tions should arrive at conclusions somewhat different. Still, whatever con¬ 
clusions may be formed respecting the doctrines I have advanced in relation to 
Matter and Substance, I trust that my readers will be of opinion that I have 
succeeded in drawing distinct lines of demarcation between the three terms 
treated of, and that I have rendered a service—a slight one it may be, but still 
a service_to the terminology of our science. For Chemistry is a science of 
precision, of a precision cognate, if not equal, to the precision of mathematics 5 
and for it to employ any appellative, even if only in an occasional use, unless 
such word is used as a term, i.e. as containing within itself a precise and 
definite meaning,—so much and no more, would be something less than credit- 
Thoughtful men will probably have observed that the first principles of all 
self-contained, independent sciences are shrouded in impenetrable darkness. 
So far may human research go, but no further. Fvery tree of knowledge is 
rooted in a soil of metaphysic, and while all above ground, from the solid trunk 
to the furthest aud minutest and most complicated ramifications, is exposed to 
the inquisition of man, the cryptal root is inexorably withheld from his gaze. 
Yet, though we are unable to pursue its roots into the metaphysical ground in 
which they are imbedded, there exists for every true science a set of terms 
intermediate between the metaphysical roots below and the first clear upspring- 
ing of the trunk terms which partly denote terminations of the trunk, partly 
beginnings of the roots; and it is from and at, but not with such intermediary 
terms, that all science begins. In the science of chemistry, the metaphysical 
