THE SOUL IN NATURE, 
91 
passive existence it is possible to conceive; and to assign 
it an active existence seems absurd. Yet that stone is 
dragged downwards by the force of gravitation; it presses 
towards the centre of the earth, and meets with the 
resistance offered it by the stone on which it rests. That 
second stone is pressed upon by the first, and is also 
impelled downward by the force of gravitation, but is pre¬ 
vented from descending by other stones on which it is 
super-imposed; while all of these again are in the same 
condition—driven down by gravitation, yet prevented 
from descending further by the objects which support 
them. Again, the second stone, which bears the weight 
of the first, and the third stone bearing the weight of the 
second, are each subjected to the pressure of the body 
above them, and that pressure—comparatively immea¬ 
surable though it is—tends to compress the particles of 
the body pressed upon; while the elasticity inherent in 
the particles of the body pressed upon, causes them to 
rebound, and so prevents them being crushed or altered 
permanently in shape. It is just such an assemblage of 
forces—pressure in one direction, resistance in another, 
general tendency towards a centre and repulsion from the 
centre by virtue of the accumulation already there—of 
which the globe consists, and to which it owes its shape, 
rotation on its axis, and motion round the sun. If, then, 
each separate stone by the wayside plays a part in a 
system so extensive and so complete, how can its existence 
—lifeless, motionless, as it seems—be anything than the 
most active that can be imagined ? 
Again, if we look round on Nature, we discover certain 
forms of existence which we may term permanent; yet. 
