The Genesis of Nature Considered in the Light of Mr. Spencer's Philosophy: As Based Upon the Persistence of EnergyJ.B. Alden, 1890 - 377 pages |
Other editions - View all
The Genesis of Nature: Considered in the Light of Mr. Spencer's Philosophy ... Thomas Hubbard Musick No preview available - 2016 |
The Genesis of Nature: Considered in the Light of Mr. Spencer's Philosophy ... Thomas Hubbard Musick No preview available - 2017 |
The Genesis of Nature Considered in the Light of Mr. Spencer's Philosophy ... Thomas Hubbard Musick No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
action actual energy actual motion amount ascent atom Balfour Stewart ball becomes called cannon and ball cause chemism composition conception consciousness Conservation continually correlation cylinder direction dissipation distance doctrine earth elasticity energy of position equal equivalent essence evolution exerted existence fact fall feet force acting Grant Allen gravitative force gravity heat ical impact inertia Infinite Judge Stallo kilogramme kinetic force Lant Carpenter logical manifestations mass metamorphosed metres mind modes molar force molecular forces molecules momentum moving body nature necessary Newton's overcome P. G. Tait parallelogram of forces particles Persistence of Force phenomena philosophy physical forces physicists piston planets potential energy pounds pressure pressure-force principle produce Prof proposition pull quantity reality reason resistance rest result says side space Spencer steam supposed Tait temperature tendency tension theory thing thought tion transformed true truth universe Unknowable velocity vessel vis viva weight
Popular passages
Page 154 - That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to. another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man, who has iu philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it.
Page 354 - 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 97 - Abandoning all disguise, the confession that I feel bound to make before you is that I prolong the vision backward across the boundary of the experimental evidence, and discern in that matter, which we in our ignorance, and notwithstanding our professed reverence for its Creator, have hitherto covered with opprobrium, the promise and potency of every form and quality of life.
Page 29 - The sole truth which transcends experience by underlying it, is thus the persistence of Force. This being the basis of experience, must be the basis of any scientific organization of experiences. To this an ultimate analysis brings us down; and on this a rational synthesis must build up.
Page 355 - ... recurrent beat of a harp-string. In other words, the phenomena of Evolution have to be deduced from the Persistence of Force. As before said — " to this an ultimate analysis brings us down , and on this a rational synthesis must build up.
Page 24 - Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are all lifeless bodies. Of these, carbon and oxygen unite in certain proportions and under certain conditions, to give rise to carbonic acid ; hydrogen and oxygen produce water ; nitrogen and hydrogen give rise to ammonia.
Page 37 - ... far as the human understanding has yet pierced, asserts itself everywhere in nature. Long in advance of all definite experiment upon the subject, the constancy and indestructibility of matter had been affirmed ; and all subsequent experience justified the affirmation. Later researches extended the attribute of indestructibility to force. This idea, applied in the first instance to inorganic, rapidly embraced organic nature. The vegetable world, though drawing almost all its nutriment from invisible...
Page 155 - Thus the law of universal attraction becomes pure Metaphysics if we withdraw from it the verifiable specification of its mode of operation. Withdraw the formula " inversely as the square of the distance and directly as the mass," and Attraction is left standing a mere
Page 136 - This leads us to undertake an account of the idea of Force in general. This is the great conception which, developed in the early part of the seventeenth century from the rude idea of a cause, and constantly improved upon since, has shown us how to explain all the changes of motion which bodies experience, and how to think about all physical phenomena; which has given birth to modern science, and changed the face of the globe ; and which...
Page 369 - That proposition is, that the whole world, living and not living, is the result of the mutual interaction, according to definite laws, of the forces possessed by the molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of the universe was composed.