so universally is it applicable. Eventually it will be admitted that the philosophy of the nineteenth century is founded on the crude ideas of the imperfectly learned in the earliest days of science, ever since adopted, and never investigated, instead of being deduced solely from the inert nature of matter, the only true basis. On modern philosophy, Davy makes the shrewd remark, that "it is no better than a mere compilation of isolated facts and circumstances, differently accounted for, and leading to no general theory:" such is not the philosophy of nature.

That matter is inert, is made manifest in there being nothing whatever throughout the whole of inanimate nature which can act or move of itself. Matter does nothing, cannot act; it is the passive patient of the general pressure, which alone can act; and pressure is universal, because of matter being inert. Matter is not only inert, but unalterable; on which principles the constancy of the order and laws of nature depend. Inert, unalterable matter can suffer no change but of a local nature—change of place, which implies motion, for which there is no analogous cause but impulsive pressure. These unquestionable physical truisms are stated in advance, from being intimately connected with every physical change, in order to serve as a standard of comparison from which to form an opinion while canvassing the principles and laws by which the scientific world has been for centuries not only governed, but misled.

Newton admits the principle of inertia, but considers it an innate passive power, which enables a body to resist against being moved; and when in motion, enables it to resist that which would put it out of motion. Inertia, a passive power, is as death, being passive animation; and inertia enabling a body to act against force, is nothing short of active inertia, or vis inertiæ, which means the force of inability. This monstrous perversion of a natural fundamental principle, and by such high authority, pervades the whole of the established philosophy. It makes the planets, which are but clumps of deadly inert matter, gravitate themselves through space; and makes inert atoms competent to perform attraction on each other wherever they exist. A more absurd article of belief has no place in the Athanasian code of mind-perverting dogmas; yet admitted as true by the most eminently talented and highly learned of the present age. While such inconsistent principles of common-place use are gravely defended, the known facts of mesmerism are obstinately and ignorantly denied; and only because of not being understood; that, were it not for the good sense and philanthropic perseverance of the enlightened, noble-minded Elliotsons, Ashburners, and Esdailes, of the British empire—honourable, heroic champions and victors in the cause of truth, humanity and science, in despite of the self-conceit which affects the knowledge of the limits of possibility; that, were it not for the magnanimity of those superiors belonging to the learned profession, this heaven-bestowed boon, carrying healing on the wing to suffering humanity, would have been contemptuously received, ungratefully acknowledged, and long since consigned to the rubbish of oblivion. Yet all have claim to the common apology, false scientific education, excepting those who have assented to what they have seen with wonder, and afterwards denied their admission.

The established philosophy cannot account for the boy's marble going farther through the air than the fullest extent of the impelling thumb. The proposition may appear trifling and insignificant, yet is it worthy the consideration of the Chair of Knowledge, from which it has never been explained nor there understood, as involving the cause of planetary motion; for, in all nature there are not two causes of motion. That the marble "partakes" of the force, and "partakes" of the motion of that by which it is impelled, is an absurd idea; the force and motion of a body were not, and cannot become, the force and motion of any other body.

The established philosophy cannot account for the splinters of a stone having motion out of the direction of impulse, nor for having motion in every direction but that of the stone-breaker's impelling hammer, which appears at variance with the natural, immutable dynamic law, which says, that as a body cannot move itself, so must it have motion in the direction only of that by which it is being moved. Neither is there any philosophy extant, which explains why the stone at Texteth of one hundred tons should rise, as if of itself, six inches in the air, under which the quarrymen could have shoved a hand and withdrawn it safely, before the immense mass fell crushingly on the former bed.

On the other hand, what the established philosophy undertakes to explain, it explains erroneously. Beside maintaining the transfer of a local casualty, in accounting for continuous motion, it teaches that the power of steam consists in heat, and that cold congeals water: whereas heat and cold have no physical existence; each is a sensation, anything similar to which it is impossible for either fire or water to possess. So that to the present day the power of steam, the cause of combustion and of congelation has in each instance remained unknown.

So simple is nature, so few her laws, that were any one of her phenomena known throughout all its bearings, it would be found that the knowledge includes the philosophy of the whole of matter. Of this Aristotle was aware when announcing, that he who is unacquainted with motion, is ignorant of all things in true philosophy. Motion being the only effect producible on inert, unalterable matter, the knowledge of the phenomenon includes that of all effect. The substance of all things being of the same species, and the power of Nature consisting in universal pressure, the formations in general nature and in the laboratory of art can have but the same principles, laws, theory, and philosophy. Paul may plant and Apollos water; nature germinates, the weather or climate grows and fructifies. The chymist's fire does not burn itself; in the absence of air and its pressure there is no combustion; neither is there growth, respiration, nor life.

According to the philosophy of the astronomer, the earth has projectile motion, from "impulse once impressed, at the beginning, and not since renewed;" which is effect six thousand times, at least, greater than the cause. Then, again, as motion must be in the direction of impulse and cease out of that direction, the earth, from "impulse once impressed," goes round the sun without being impelled; or of its own accord, and should be centripetally attracted to the sun, if solar attraction were possible. It needs no mathematical calculation to prove, that, from such philosophy being wholly independent of all consideration of natural cause, it is untrue, and at variance with common sense.

The philosophy of the chymist is of every-day make. It assumes different species of matter; chymical matter and matter not chymical; attractions innumerable, such as chymical, electric, galvanic, capillary, and attraction of cohesion; likewise magnetic forces, chymical affinities, and affections of matter—"while as yet there is none of them"—matter being inert naturally. To mechanical nature the entire is useless and foreign, and their value lies solely in being terms of professional application in the highly important chymical art; but to the discovery of true philosophy they are an insurmountable obstacle. How chymical matter differs from the common matter of the world, no chymist