FORCE AND DIVINE VOLITION. 127 In a primordial impulse, they must inevitably reach at last a condition of rest. Phenomenon is but the disturbance of the equilibrium of force. All disturbances tend to repose. No cycle of motions can be self-perpetuating. To whatever extent we widen the cycle, by annexing new realms of dynamic activity, the widest realm is finite, and the universe of atomic agitations must finally become quiet. This is the same outcome reached when we reasoned on the molar activities of the cosmos. philosophy, all roads lead to God. If we conceive the continuous renewal of the impulse applied at the periphery of existence, we bring Deity into intimate relations to the world—separated from phenomenon only by a film of matter. In this case, and indeed in either case, the question arises, Why should Deity choose to exert his energy from a distance? In the latter case, too, the human imagination is burdened with all the reluctance which is aroused in some minds at the contemplation of Deity as ever active in the sustentation of his universe. If, however, an active relation to the universe is admissible, the view which follows seems simpler and more plausible. This view is, that natural force has no existence except as the direct effort of the Supreme Will. It supposes matter to be absolutely inert and naked of energy. Every form of force is a particular mode of divine activity. Every movement and every change reveals directly the presence of the Supreme Power; and man is surrounded by an array of admonitions of the divine presence the most awe-inspiring possible. Nay, man himself is the vehicle of the voice of God to his own sensorium. The changes of matter are in progress in our own bodies. Infinite agency permeates our very selves, assorting our nutrition, building us up, effecting repairs, wasting our tissues, and carrying us into the grave-nay, not forsaking us even there, but tenderly bearing the effete molecules which we can use no longer into new situations and collocations, to subserve other predetermined uses in the economy of nature. 128 DIVINE IMMANENCE. Either phase of the theory of divine immanence, though the general doctrine, as I have said, has found many advocates, is obnoxious to an objection proceeding from the impotence of the human mind. It seems, at first, incompatible with the majesty of God to think of him as ever active and careful and cognizant of the affairs of the universe, and, most especially, of all their subordinate details. The relation even of creator and disposer, without the implication of immanent activity, has brought down the reproachful phrase, "carpenter theory". of the universe. Such misgivings and such reproaches are prompted only by human finiteness and incapacity. Activity is the central law of existence. Nothing exists for repose, but every thing for work. Indolence is a human invention. The only evidence of existence is action. Whatever ceases to act is dead. God, the author of life and fountain of living force, can not be less active than the modes of existence which represent him. But we must not overlook the meaning of omnipotence and omniscience and omnipresence. We must not overlook the fact that, with Deity, willing is accomplishing. We must not forget that God is without organs to be wearied or wasted with use. With Omniscience, the knowledge of all things is easier than, with us, the knowledge of one thing. With Omnipotence, the accomplishment of all things is easier than, with us, the accomplishment of one thing. After much reflection, this seems to me the most philosophic conception of the relation of the Supreme Being to the world. The theories of matter and force which I have thus far discussed suppose matter to have a substantive existence. There is a counter-theory which regards matter merely a manifestation of force. In this view, the so-called properties of matter have no subjective ground. The resistances which it presents are not resistances of a material substance. The last two views presented-divine immanence in matter and divine immanence through matter-suggest the query, What, then, can matter be? DYNAMICAL VIEW OF MATTER. 129 If the energies emanating from matter do not appertain to matter, then those modes of energy known as resistance, elasticity, adhesiveness, color, and the like, have no material ground. Extension and figure, which relate only to the space over which the energies just mentioned are active, are not properties of any material substances. Indeed, as all properties are but modes of energy, the properties of matter are completely detached from matter, and we are left to the conception of a substance without attributes.(') Such substance is a figment of the imagination. We know nothing, and can know nothing, of any substance save by its attributes. If the so-called properties of matter do not belong to matter, then matter as a ground of phenomena has no existence. But the properties of matter so called remain; they can not be ignored. Those forces which we have supposed to emanate from matter are realities. But it is not possible to thought to substitute abstract force or forces for all which we have regarded as forms of matter. Force can only be exerted by a real agent. Attribute does not float about creation without a substantial ground to rest on. Force is neither fatherless nor orphan, flitting about without haven and without allegiance. Force is efficiency sent forth by substantial existence. It is not force, indeed, which produces effects, but the free-will whence dynamic influence proceeds. Force is an attribute of will. Elasticity, resistance, color, which are both impressions made upon our sensorium, and thus subjective, and also energies exerted to produce those impressions, and thus objective-these, also, are attributes of will. The dynam (1) This view is less accepted than it has been. Professor F. Schneider says, "The theory that the atoms have no extension in space and are merely centres of force *** is, in view of the results of investigation in various provinces of molecular physics, no longer tenable" (Meyer, "Jahrbuch," for 1873). Nearly all physical speculations are now based on the assumption of the atomic constitution of matter (see Barker's Address before the Physical Section of the American Assoc. Adv. Science, Buffalo, 1876). 130 DYNAMICAL THEORY PANTHEISTIC. ical theory of matter, therefore, precipitates us immediately and irretrievably upon divine agency. We may loosely speak of atoms of matter as mere foci of force, and aggregates of matter as mere spheres of resistance; but such language is empty and vain. There must be something which exerts force. There must be something which resists.(') Thus we find ourselves, by whatever path we pursue our ex✦plorations through the mysteries of matter and force, always confronted by the divine presence. We can not flee from Deity. There is no way to invent a world which must not depend first and last upon divine support. There is no way to think of an atom of matter, or that which may be called an atom, without conceiving it afloat in the breath of divine power. Recapitulation of Possible Conceptions of Matter and Force. 1. Endowed with force. (a) The force inherent (Popular view). (1) Should the dynamical theory of matter become established, we should be forced into a modified pantheism. The theory means that no material, inert substance underlies the phenomena which we style the phenomena of matter. But reason declares that all phenomena are manifestations of some entity; and hence, if there be no matter, material phenomena are manifestations of Deity, and the substance or entity revealed by the properties of matter is Deity-the material universe is Deity. But if we ever find ourselves resting in this conclusion, we shall arise and re-affirm these unimpeachable dicta of reason—that reason which is the offspring of God: 1. Man possesses an independent identity and a free-will; 2. The Being whose activities constitute the phenomena of the universe, without the veil of matter intervening, is a personality—discerning ends, prompted by motives, executing by volition. UNPHILOSOPHIZING SCIENCE. 2. A mere channel for transmission of force. (bb) Impulse constantly renewed. (b) The force proceeds from an immanent cause. 131 Science is sometimes heard to object to these theistic conceptions of matter and of the universe; but this is only because science does not philosophize. As I have before intimated, there is no fact of science from which philosophy can not find a path leading directly to God. If the scientist does not find the path, it is because he does not seek it. He contents himself with partial knowledge, rather than go beyond the data and the methods of science. Amusing himself with the means, he loses sight of the end. He is a man sent by the Almighty to rear a temple; and finding some prettily colored stones in the quarry, he entertains himself with these, instead of laying them in the massive wall. He is a child studying the alphabet, who thinks the acquisition of the letters the end of all learning. The scientist sometimes declares that the admission of divine will, divine motive, divine providence, is the introduction of chaos or caprice into nature.(1) All things, he says, move for (1) "In the intellectual infancy of a savage state, man *** regards all passing events as depending on the arbitrary volition of a superior, but invisible, power" (Draper, "Intellectual Development of Europe," p. 2). "As science demands the radical extirpation of caprice, and the absolute reliance upon law in nature, there arose with the growth of scientific notions a desire and determination to sweep from the field of theory this mob of gods and demons" (Tyndall, "Belfast Address," Appletons' ed., p. 38). It must be noticed, however, that when the order and certainty of phenomena under natural law are brought into antithesis with divine agency, it is some crude conception of supernaturalism which is disparaged—the Greek or mediæval anthropomorphism-and not the recognition of every kind and mode of divine agency in the world. Such passages are not intended to |