But the
unparticled matter, set in motion by a law or quality existing
within itself, is thinking.
P. Can you give me no more precise idea of what you term the
unparticled matter?
V. The matters of which man is cognizant escape the senses in
gradation. We have, for example, a metal, a piece of wood, a drop of
water, the atmosphere, a gas, caloric, electricity, the luminiferous
ether. Now, we call all these things matter, and embrace all matter in
one general definition; but in spite of this, there can be no two
ideas more essentially distinct than that which we attach to a
metal, and that which we attach to the luminiferous ether. When we
reach the latter, we feel an almost irresistible inclination to
class it with spirit, or with nihilty. The only consideration which
restrains us is our conception of its atomic constitution; and here,
even, we have to seek aid from our notion of an atom, as something
possessing in infinite minuteness, solidity, palpability, weight.
Destroy the idea of the atomic constitution and we should no longer be
able to regard the ether as an entity, or, at least, as matter. For
want of a better word we might term it spirit.
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