# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1863_S76
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

76 Materialism, or the So-Called Results of Modern Natural Science.

derivation of it, to be added still. The one thought is this: since we perceive those phenomena which we perceive only in matter, such as electricity and magnetism, and for the sake of which we presuppose forces that bring about such phenomena, only along with matter and never apart from it, we therefore know of these forces only because of the presence of matter, and we cannot conceive of these phenomena at all without matter. This profound thought, to be sure, no one will doubt. It is, however, presented in a manner that leads us to conclude that the author really believes he has thereby proven that every force presupposes matter! — The other thought we wish to set forth somewhat more fully, for the sake of understanding. What we call force is really nothing but a change in the states of aggregation of matter, that is, a drawing-nearer or a drawing-farther of the particles of matter to and from one another within that whole which arises through the mere accumulation or gathering of particles of matter and is called a thing. A piece of gold is just as much an aggregate of particles of matter as a heap of sand is an aggregate of grains of sand. That in gold the parts cohere, and likewise do not fly apart upon impact as a heap of sand does, while in other bodies the particles readily disperse or are pushed together, is explained thus: some substances allow the change of position of the particles of matter of the impacting body to pass over to themselves by contagion, others refuse this transfer. With this, the so-called fundamental forces of matter — attraction with its species, cohesion, and repulsion — are fully explained!! Now, however, there are many kinds of change of position. The particles of matter can move quickly or slowly, to the right or the left, up and down or obliquely, away from one another or toward one another; they can, after having moved apart, quickly return again and thus move in a vibrating manner — all this, naturally, through contagion. These various changes in the states of aggregation of bodies are now designated by different names, such as: heat, light, electricity, magnetism, sound, and so forth. If, then, a body is stimulated by another body whose particles of matter change their place in the manner one calls magnetism, to the same moving-hither-and-thither, one says the body is in a magnetic state, that its magnetic forces are now called forth, or unlocked. Although the contagion passes from the one to the other, one still cannot say that the force, that is, the change of position, has been communicated; rather, because the affected particles move of themselves, the change of position has only been awakened, and it is strongest precisely where it has not yet occurred, because through the actual change nothing has yet been used up of the whole sum of possible changes. The mutual molecular behavior of the particles of matter, such that they draw nearer to or farther from one another, thus remains proper to each particle. To be sure, the particles themselves know nothing of one another, do not know whether they mutually draw nearer to or farther from one another — for since we —