This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ...came from somewhere, and which we call matter. And this matter is to be found from the most distant fixed star, through suns and systems, in plants, animals, and man. Science tells us what wonderful things are done with this matter by the law of gravitation, but can tell us no more about the law of ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ...came from somewhere, and which we call matter. And this matter is to be found from the most distant fixed star, through suns and systems, in plants, animals, and man. Science tells us what wonderful things are done with this matter by the law of gravitation, but can tell us no more about the law of gravitation than about matter; only that matter is carried round and round in just such a way as if such a force were actually there. And that regular way of acting or being acted upon they call the law of gravitation, and we can get no nearer. They can tell of motion, but nothing of the force that made the motion. And then they tell us of the wonderful workings of other forces, taking matter, making it into solids, liquids, gasses, crystals and a thousand other indescribably beautiful and wonderful things, and they tell us that these are the phenomena of matter, acted upon by physicochemical laws or forces. But after all they can only tell us that this is the way that that indefinable something called matter acts or is acted upon, just as if there were certain fixed forces working in a certain regular way. That regularity of way of acting they call law; but of the forces themselves the best scientists know nothing, only the phenomena. A step further and we come to where a new set of phenomena showed, not new matter, but a new force, which laid hold 144 Laws of Vitality and Instinct. XiECT. of gravitation, and physico-chemical forces, and made them serve as hewers of wood and drawers of water, chained them to do her bidding, while she took hold of matter and rejected matter at her sweet will. Vitality, life, produced phenomena, whose wonderful variety and motions science unfolds and delights us with; but science gets no nearer matter, and no...
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