The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Matter, by Oliver Lodge

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Title: Life and Matter
A Criticism of Professor Haeckel's 'Riddle of the Universe'

Author: Oliver Lodge

Release Date: August 15, 2008 [EBook #26321]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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"'Attraction' and 'repulsion' seem to be the sources of
_will_--that momentous element of the soul which determines the
character of the individual" (p. 45).

"The positive ponderable matter, the element with the feeling of
like or desire, is continually striving to complete the process of
condensation, and thus collecting an enormous amount of _potential_
energy; the negative imponderable matter, on the other hand, offers
a perpetual and equal resistance to the further increase of its
strain and of the feeling of dislike connected therewith, and thus
gathers the utmost amount of _actual_ energy.

"I think that this pyknotic theory of substance will prove more
acceptable to every biologist who is convinced of the unity of
nature than the kinetic theory which prevails in physics to-day"
(p. 78).

In other words, he appeals to a presumed sentiment of biologists
against the knowledge of the physicist in his own sphere--a strange
attitude for a man of science. After this it is less surprising to find
him ignoring the elementary axiom that "action and reaction are equal
and opposite," _i.e._ that internal forces can have no motive power on
a body as a whole, and making the grotesque assertion that matter is
moved, not by external forces, but by internal likes and desires:--

"I must lay down the following theses, which are involved in Vogt's
pyknotic theory, as indispensable for a truly monistic view of
substance, and one that covers the whole field of organic and
inorganic nature:--

"1. The two fundamental forms of substance, ponderable matter