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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
“In truth these profound errors need no further refutation to-day, for experience has never yet discovered for us a single immaterial substance, a single force which is not dependent on watter, or a single form of energy which is not exerted by material movement, whether it be of mass, or of ether, or of both. Even the most elaborate and most perfect forins of energy that we know,--the psychic life of the higher animals, the thought and reason of mandepend on material processes, or changes in the neuroplasm of the ganglionic cells; they are inconceivable apart from such modifications. Even consciousness cannot be thought of as an immaterial entity, for it is affected by the state of our health, by wrong knowledge and even by certain drugs, such as tea, coffee, musk, camphor, etc."
The old notions about matter and atom have undergone considerable modification since the discovery of radium. Many distinguished physicists see in its phenomena an actual breakdown of what used to be considered the indestructible atom of matter. Electrons (units. of electricty) are detached from atoms of matter at an electrode, and it is believed that these electrons are really “bits chipped off” the atom (* The Riddle Vindicated ').
The question of weight does not arise under the circumstances, since it is merely a comparative term. As a matter of fact, our experiences of matter consist only in resistant force. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the established affinity between matter and force. For our practical requirements we may weigh or measure either of them, as we like, by our comparative methods.
As regards the cause or causes of evolution, the scientist denies that the universe is the outcome of any one's idea or design ; he disputes with theology the hypothesis of a miraculous creation at the will of a creator, and ascribes the continuance of the universe to
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