Motion

“ Thus motion is the fundamental principle of all phenomena. If we analyze all forms of energy with which we are familiar, we shall soon find that they are only changes of one form of motion into another. ”

“ The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed. ”

“ And again, motion in a straight line and in a curve are no otherwise distinct than that the one is motion continuing in the same direction, the other is motion which at each instant changes its direction. ”

“ Motion is the simple repetition of the polar, twofold act, or the ceaseless separation of poles; but, as in every polar line the two poles are in all cases together, so even is this mutual separation of poles only a repetition of polarity.
83. Motion also is not created, but has emerged directly from the Eternal, is the primary function itself repeated. Motion is the ever self-manifesting, consequently progressive God.
84. Motion is thought, which is manifested as speech. Thought polarizes the fingers. If the thought be powerful it moves them, and through them other bodies. ”

“ Simple modes of motion. To slide, roll, tumble, walk, creep, run, dance, leap, skip, and abundance of others that might be named, are words which are no sooner heard but every one who understands English has presently in his mind distinct ideas, which are all but the different modifications of motion. Modes of motion answer those of extension ; swift and slow are two different ideas of motion, the measures whereof are made of the distances of time and space put together ; so they are complex ideas, comprehending time and space with motion. ”

“ Although the doctrine of motion in connexion with force, which is the subject of mechanics, is by far the most important form in which the consideration of motion enters into the formation of our sciences, the Pure Doctrine of Motion, which treats of space, time, and velocity, might be followed out so as to give rise to a very considerable and curious body of science. ”

“ We must here remember that motion as speed is inherent and constant in the particle and that motion as path is always determined from without, but the particles within the body are all external to one another, and therefore the direction of motion which is internal to the body is in obedience to the laws of heredity, and the direction of motion which comes from without the body is heat, gravity and strain. ”

“ To begin with the examination of motion; 'tis evident this is a quality altogether inconceivable alone, and without a reference to some other object. The idea of motion necessarily supposes that of a body moving. Now, what is our idea of the moving body, without which motion is incomprehensible? It must resolve itself into the idea of extension or of solidity; and consequently the reality of motion depends upon that of these other qualities. ”

“ We say this motion is a manner of existence, that flows, necessarily, out of the nature of matter; that matter moves by its own peculiar energies; that its motion is to be attributed to the force which is inherent in itself; that the variety of motion, and the phenomena which result, proceed from the diversity of the properties—of the qualities—of the combinations, which are originally found in the primitive matter, of which Nature is the assemblage. ”

“ Thus motion ascends from the primevals on, And stage by stage emerges to our sense, Until those objects also move which we Can mark in sunbeams, though it not appears What blows do urge them. Herein wonder not How 'tis that, while the seeds of things are all Moving forever, the sum yet seems to stand Supremely still, except in cases where A thing shows motion of its frame as whole. For far beneath the ken of senses lies The nature of those ultimates of the world ”

“ But motion—even the finest material motion, that of ether, (which, in consequence of the very important discovery of the conservation of force and of the mechanical equivalent of heat, made by Robert von Mayer, at present is taken to be heat) —is so decidedly a material process, the sensation of motion is so decidedly a reflex of the material in something immaterial, that the assertion of a transformation of motion into sensation seems to us only to change the point of view, and not to explain the difference, but to efface it. ”

“ If when once in motion its tendency is to continue in motion, then it could be used as an instrument by which intelligent power, putting it in motion, could extend the effects of its own action in time and space. ”

“ Motion depends upon certain external disturbing and directing forces acting upon all matter; and, consequently, as every mode of action is determined by some excitement external to the body moved, motion cannot, philosophically, be regarded otherwise than as a peculiar affection of matter under determinable conditions. “We find,” says Sir Isaac Newton, “but little motion in the world, except what plainly flows from either the active principles of nature, or from the command of the willer.” ”

“ Many of the most eminent thinkers of the present time are disposed to regard all the active principles of nature as “modes of motion,”—to look upon light, heat, electricity, and even vital force, as phenomena resulting from “change of place” among the particles of matter; this change, disturbance, or motion, being dependent upon some undefined mover. ”

“ Motion. A continued and successive change of place, either of a whole body, or of the particles of [Pg 211] which a body is composed; the earth in revolving upon its axis only, would not change its place as a body, but all the particles of which it is composed, would revolve round a common axis of motion. In revolving in its orbit, its whole mass is constantly occupying a new portion of space. ”

“ Or rather, out of this primitive conception of Motion, the adult conception of it is developed simultaneously with the development of the conceptions of Space and Time: all three being evolved from the more multiplied and varied impressions of muscular tension and objective resistance. Motion, as we know it, is thus traceable, in common with the other ultimate scientific ideas, to experiences of force. ”

“ And this rudimentary consciousness of Motion, consisting of serial impressions of force, becomes inseparably united with the consciousness of Space and Time as fast as these are abstracted from further impressions of force. ”

“ All that we know about motion is that it is a [Pg 46] name for certain changes in the relations of our visual, tactile, and muscular sensations; and all that we know about matter is that it is the hypothetical substance of physical phenomena, the assumption of the existence of which is as pure a piece of metaphysical speculation as is that of the existence of the substance of mind. ”

“ On the other hand can motion be predicated of anything apart from and other than the bodies, and, if not, can we avoid predicating it of the bodies, and, if so, is it not their state, and so in some sense a state of each? ”

“ Motion may serve to measure force, but not to explain it. It is as subordinate to the latter as speech is to thought. In truth, motion is nothing else than the series of successive positions of a body in different points of space. Force, on the other hand, is the tendency, the tension, which determines the body to pass continually from one to the other of these points ”

“ The laws of motion of visible and tangible, or molar, matter had been worked out to a great degree of refinement and embodied in the branches of science known as Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Pneumatics. These laws had been shown to hold good, so far as they could be checked by observation and experiment, throughout the universe, on the assumption that all such masses of matter possessed inertia and were susceptible of acquiring motion, in two ways, firstly by impact, or impulse from without; ”

“ The communication of motion, its direction, the resistance it suffers, and its cessation, in a word, the whole doctrine of motion cannot be consistently explained or clearly understood without supposing the inertia of matter. Self-moving matter must have thought and design, because, whenever matter moves, it must move in some particular direction, and with some precise degree of velocity ”

“ Move it in any manner, you still find motion or a change of relation. 'Tis absurd to imagine that motion in a circle, for instance, should be nothing but merely motion in a circle; while motion in another direction, as in an ellipse, should also be a passion or moral reflection ”

“ In the physical world we are congnizant of but four elementary or primordial ideas, beside the inevitable Time and Space. They are Matter, Force, Position, and Motion. Of these, motion is simply change of position; and force is recognized as the agent in every change of motion. ”

“ Motion itself, however, is not twofold in character; it is unity, but the result of duality. In time we have to distinguish the polar act of position, and the act of repeating this position, which is motion. ”

“ In the currently accepted language of science, the cause of motion, in all such cases as this, when bodies tend to move towards or away from one or another, without any discernible impact of other bodies, is termed a 'force,' which is called 'attractive' in the one case, and 'repulsive' in the other. ”

“ Free motion, arrested motion, the effort, the speed, and the direction of motion, such are the sensorial elements, which, in all probability, constitute the foundation of our ideas on space and its properties. ”

“ Modern definition of Motion.
Nor have the modern philosophers, who have endeavoured to throw off the jargon of the schools, and speak intelligibly, much better succeeded in defining simple ideas, whether by explaining their causes, or any otherwise. The atomists, who define motion to be 'a passage from one place to another,' what do they more than put one synonymous word for another? ”

“ The causes, as they exist at any moment, having produced a certain motion, that motion, becoming itself a cause, reacts upon the causes, and produces a change in them. By altering the distance and direction of the central body relatively to the planet, and the direction and quantity of the force in the direction of the tangent, it alters the elements which determine the motion at the next succeeding instant. ”

“ It is better form of speech to say that motion is absolute or relative when it is desired to call attention to one factor or the other, rather than to say that motion is an absolute or a relation.
The motion of particles is of such a nature that paths must impinge, and then collisions arise which give rise to impulse, or collision by which paths are deflected. ”

“ What are the causes of motion?—Gravity is one. The influence of heat, which is itself caused by the motion of atoms, the effects of electricity, etc., and finally, the power of force in men or animals—any of these causes will produce motion. But a body at rest cannot put itself in motion, nor can a body in motion stop itself, or change its condition of motion. ”

“ For that Motion which can continue long in one and the same part of a Body, can be propagated a long way from one part to another, supposing the Body homogeneal, so that the Motion may not be reflected, refracted, interrupted or disorder'd by any unevenness of the Body. ”

“ And now, having made this distinction, let us address ourselves to those who say that all is motion, and ask them whether all things according to them have the two kinds of motion, and are changed as well as move in place, or is one thing moved in both ways, and another in one only? ”

“ So now it was further shown that the myriad properties or qualities of matter are simply the expression of myriads of activities which are all in a final analysis motions; that no motion is ever lost but only transformed, and that every kind of motion at any moment perceptible—whether in the form of movement through space, or of light, or heat, or electricity, or the actinism that builds up the green stuff in the leaves of plants—owes its existence to the metamorphosis of some previous kind of motion. ”

“ That a body, once in motion, would continue for ever to move in the same direction with undiminished velocity unless acted upon by some new force, was a proposition which mankind found for a long time the greatest difficulty in crediting. ”

“ Granting, then, the absolute continuity of all matter, and the possibility of motion in an absolute plenum, the question which concerns us most in this essay is, How is motion generated and sustained? One of the greatest lights of this new school tells us that "all we can affirm of matter is that it is the recipient of impulse and of energy." ”

“ It is motion which reveals this long-hidden secret of the gases. It is motion also which accounts for the rigidity of solid bodies. The theory of motion, based on the doctrine of gravity as set forth by Newton and his successors, was the foundation of astronomy. ”

“ The motion performed by a man, or any other animal whatever, in walking, will have more or less velocity as the centre of their weight is more or less removed from the centre of that foot upon which they are supported. ”

“ Now, as the whole universe with all its parts possesses a certain form or figure, if any part of it moves, that form or figure of the whole is varied: hence, as MOTION is no other than a perpetual variation of figure, our idea of motion is also a real resemblance of the motion that produced it. ”

“ It would be easy to show that the fundamental laws of motion, in whatever form we state them, possess a very preeminent simplicity, compared with almost all others, which we might imagine as existing. ”

“ But whether or not momentum necessarily accompanies motion, it was shown above that the same reason for conceiving color to be solely a mode of motion equally obtains in our conception of matter, mass, or inertia, as a mode of motion; and that "all the reality we know" exists, primarily, in changing, but ever-existing, relations and contrasts of modes of motion. ”