[TO THE EDITOR OF THE “EPEOTA.TOR.1
have read Professor Tyndall's address at Belfast, as reported in the daily papers, and also your article on the subject, with great interest. May I ask if you can give me information on one point whieh perplexes me much,—namely, What is meant by Matter? Locke says that the word "is used for the substance and solidity of body, without taking in its extension and figure " ; and afterwards that it "contains nothing but the idea of a solid substance." But this surely cannot be the sense in which Pro- fessor Tyndall uses the word, when he says that Matter is "the universal Mother of all things," and contains the promise and potency of every form and quality of life." As far as my idea of the meaning of the word goes, I cannot but feel entirely innocent of the accusation of having hitherto covered Matter with oppro- brium—a charge of such alarming comprehensiveness as to be
equalled only by the malediction of the great scholar who exclaimed, "p— the Nature of Things ! " If you can give me any ex-
planation, I shall be very grateful.—I am, Sir, &c., E.
P.S.—No doubt the following lines from tile well-known "Rejected Addresses," written hi 1812, are familiar to you, but they may be new to some of your younger readers. One could almost suppose Professor Tyndall to have had them in mind :—
" Away, fond dupes ! who emit with 'sacred lore, Mosaic dreams in Genesis explore, Doat with Copernicus, or darkling stray With Newton, Ptolemy, or Tycho Brahe To you I sing not, for I sing of truth, Primeval systems, and Creation's youth; Such as of old, with magic wisdom fraught, Inspired Lucretius to the Latians taught.
We mortals stalk, like horses in a mill, Impassive media of Atomic will ;
Ye stare ! then truth's broad talisman discern,—
'Tie Demonstration speaks. Attend and learn.
From floating elements in chaos hurrd, Self-form'd of atoms, sprang the infant world. No great first cause inspired the happy plot, But all was Matter, and no matter what.
Atoms attracted by some law occult, Settling in spheres, the globe was the result ; Pare child of Chance, which still directs the ball, As rotatory atoms rise or fall. In Aether launch'Ll, the peopled babble floats, A mass of particles and confluent motes,
So nicely pois.d, that if one atom flings
Its weight away, aloft the planet springs, And wings its coarse through realms of boundless space, Outstripping comets in eccentric race. . Add but one atom more, it sinks outright Down to the realms of Tartarus and night. What waters melt, or scorching fires consume, In different forms their beings reassume ; Hence can no chaiVe arise, except in name, For weight and substance ever are the same."
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