w calm the
dignity of this potential rank! The water in the reservoir is scarcely
ruffled or disturbed, as if unconscious of its power; when it has lost
its force it rushes along with a sullen murmur and a roar, howling and
hissing and boiling in endless torture, until--

'It gains a safer bed, and steals at last
Along the mazes of the quiet vale.'

So the vulgar crowd rushes on, with plenty of kinetic force, making
noise enough and looking very busy; while those who seem to sleep in
calm forgetfulness, exercise their potential energy, and do the real
work of turning the great engine of the State.

There are attractive and repulsive forces (more commonly the latter, the
cynic will say) in our social system, but each individual is the centre
of various forces acting upon him. In nature all matter possesses the
force of gravity, and whatever the size of two particles may be, they
mutually attract each other. The earth attracts the moon; the moon
attracts the earth. A stone thrown up into the air exercises an
infinitesimal force upon the earth; so in the social system every
individual, however small and insignificant he may be, exercises some
attractive force upon his neighbour. There is no one in the world who
does not exercise some influence for good or for evil upon his fellows.

The force of _cohesion_ is manifest in society as in nature, that force,
I mean, which resists the separation of a body's particles. Different
bodies possess different powers of cohesion, _e.g._, the cohesion of
chalk is far less than that of flint embedded in it; even the same body
possesses different powers of cohesion in different directions, _e.g._,
it is easier to split wood in the direction of the fibres than
perpendicular to them. If by our old principle of continuity we change
the words 'bodies' into 'States' or 'individuals,' we shall see that the
same laws hold good in social science as in natural philosophy.

These are a few analogous laws which I have taken almost at random; but
it must strike the most casual listener to my remarks that it is
wondrous strange that men, regarded as social beings, should possess the
same qualities, and be governed by the same laws, as the rest of
_matter_. As Bishop Butler says, 'the force of analogy consists in the
frequency of the supposed analogous facts, and the real resemblance of
the things compared.' It appeals to the reasoning faculty, and may form
a solid argument. Hence, if we ca