First PrinciplesD. Appleton, 1896 - 612 pages |
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absolute abstract action agencies aggregate arise assert become belief body carbonic acid cause centre centre of gravity changes chapter chemical chemical affinity co-existence complete conceive conception conclusion connexion consciousness constitute continue correlation definite differentiation direction Earth effects elements ence equally equilibration equilibrium Evolution existence external fact faint manifestations further gravitation heat Hence heterogeneous homogeneous hypothesis ideas illustrations implies incident forces increase inference infinite infinitely divisible integration kind knowledge lative laws of thought least resistance less limits manifesta mass matter ment mental modes modified molecular motion movements moving muscular nature nebular hypothesis ness object objective science organic persistence of force phenomena Philosophy physical position present principle produced quantity re-distribution reality relations relative Religion religious rhythm Science similarly Sir William Hamilton social Solar Solar System space things thought tion transformation truth ultimate units unlike velocity vivid manifestations
Popular passages
Page 126 - But nature makes that mean; so over that art, Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race. This is an art Which does mend nature — change it rather; but The art itself is nature.
Page 584 - Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion ; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity ; and during •which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation.
Page 94 - We are thus taught the salutary lesson, that the capacity of thought is not to be constituted into the measure of existence; and are warned from recognizing the domain of our knowledge as necessarily coextensive with the horizon of our faith. And by a wonderful revelation, we are thus, in the very consciousness of our inability to conceive aught above the relative and finite, inspired with a belief in the existence of something unconditioned beyond the sphere of all comprehensible reality.* 2.
Page 41 - We attempt to escape from this apparent contradiction, by introducing the idea of succession in time. The Absolute exists first by itself, and afterwards becomes a Cause. But here we are checked by the third conception, that of the Infinite. How can the Infinite become that which it was not from the first ? If causation is a possible mode of existence, that which exists without causing is not infinite, that which becomes a cause has passed beyond its former limits.
Page 582 - On which the comment may be that one who had studied celestial mechanics as much as the reviewer has studied the general course of transformations, might similarly have remarked that the formula — 'bodies attract one another directly as their masses and inversely as the squares of their distances,' was at best but a blank form for solar systems and sidereal clusters.
Page 577 - Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it may be compelled by impressed forces to change that state.
Page 77 - How, indeed, it could ever be doubted that thought is only of the conditioned, may well be deemed a matter of the profoundest admiration. Thought cannot transcend consciousness; consciousness is only possible under the antithesis of a subject and object of thought, known only in correlation, and mutually limiting each other...
Page 76 - ... an infinite whole, for this could only be done by the infinite synthesis in thought of finite wholes, which would itself require an infinite time for its accomplishment ; nor, for the same reason, can we follow out in thought an infinite divisibility of parts. The result is the same, whether we apply the process to limitation in space, in time, or in degree. The unconditional negation, and the unconditional affirmation of limitation, in other words, the infinite and the absolute, properly so...
Page 140 - How is it to be justified by the results? As any other assumption is justified — by ascertaining that all the conclusions deducible from it correspond with the facts as directly observed — by showing the agreement between the experiences it leads us to anticipate and the actual experiences. There is no mode of establishing the validity of any belief, except that of showing its entire congruity with all other beliefs.
Page 125 - Let him duly realize the fact that opinioli is the agency through which character adapts external arrangements to itself — that his opinion rightly forms part of this agency — is a unit of force, constituting, with other such units, the general power which works out social changes; and he will perceive that he may properly give full utterance to his innermost conviction : leaving it to produce what effect it may.