HPB-SD(ed.1) v.1 p.3 sec.5: Difference between revisions

“ A cause is that which is essentially acting in the genealogy of phenomena, in every production as in every modification. I said that activity (or Force) was invisible. . . . To suppose it corporeal and ''residing in the properties of matter ''would be a gratuitous hypothesis. . . To reduce all the causes to God. . . . would amount to embarrassing oneself with a hypothesis hostile to many verities. But to speak of ''a plurality of forces ''proceeding from the Deity and possessing inherent powers of their own, is not unreasonable. . . . and I am disposed to admit phenomena produced by intermediate agents called Forces or Secondary Agents. The ''distinction ''of Forces is the principle of the division of Sciences ; so many real and separate forces, so many mother-Sciences. . . . No : Forces are not suppositions and abstractions, but realities, and the only acting realities whose attributes can be determined with the help of direct observation and induction.” (“ ''Sur la distinction des Forces'',” published in the ''Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences de Montpellier'', Vol. II., fasc. I., 1854.)