Although I cannot but
think that this position was a conspicuously irrational one for any
competent thinker to occupy before the scientific doctrine of the
correlation of the forces had been enunciated, nevertheless I cannot lose
the opportunity of alluding to this remarkable feature in Sir William
Hamilton's philosophy, showing as it does that same prophetic forestalling
of the results which have since followed from the discovery of the
conservation of energy, as was shown by his no less remarkable theory of
causation. (See supplementary essay "On the Final Mystery of Things.")
[22] Mr. N. Lockyer's work is now supplying important evidence on these
points.--1878.
[23] It will of course be observed that if matter and force are identical,
the unification is complete.
[24] Herbert Spencer.
[25] It may here be observed that the above discussion would not be
affected by the view of Professor Clifford and others, that natural law is
to be regarded as having a subjective rather than an objective
signification--that what we call a natural law is merely an arbitrary
selection made by ourselves of certain among natural processes. The
discussion would not be affected by this view, because the argument is
really based upon the existence of a cosmos as distinguished from a chaos;
and therefore it would be rather an intensification of the argument than
otherwise to point out that, for the maintenance of a cosmos, natural laws,
as conceived by us, would be inadequate.
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