gy in a potential form.

Whilst the transformability of Heat, Light, Sound, and other physical
phenomena in definite numerical ratios has led to their being all
regarded as actual manifestations of transmutations proceeding in one
real thing, occasionally there is a seeming break in the catena; no
phenomenon can be detected into which the heat or light or other
immediately preceding manifestation has been transformed; but, later on,
the co-relative reappears, and by an argument as strong as that which
asserts the continuous identity of an intelligence before, during, and
after a temporary suspension of consciousness, the student of Physics
maintains the continued existence _in posse_, if not _in esse_, of the
Energy which by appropriate action he can again reveal in an active or
kinetic manifestation. Hence arises the conception of potential Energy.
The Energy to which we attribute the force of cohesion which any
particular body can on occasion manifest, we believe to exist
potentially whilst that body continues unacted upon. Our belief is
confirmed by our experience of the certainty with which, on the
recurrence of the given conditions, the force always again manifests
itself. In like manner the potential Energy to which we attribute the
Force of Gravitation we believe to exist at all times, even when not
kinetically active. Indeed, it only manifests itself when a
transmutation is taking place into some other form of Energy. Now it is
the universal association of these two forms of potential Energy with
the common and fundamental data of our sense-experience that has
suggested the construction in our minds of the conception of Matter, and
furnished us with the ideas of solidity, impenetrability, and weight
which constitute its groundwork.

Our view, therefore, is that the concept of materiality can, in the way
just indicated, be in all cases analysed into, and derived from, the
conception of Energy; and that Science, if consistent, cannot postulate
the reality of Matter as well. Potential Energy adequately supplies the
demand for a real substratum of which phenomena are the manifestation.

The whole question is very well worth the attention, not only of
scientific students but of metaphysicians. The inquiry will distinctly
gain if it receive the auxiliary attention of those who have studied the
process by which we form our mental conceptions, and whilst the students
of Physics deserve the honours of discovery, they c