Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-05-30
LIFE CONSIDERED AS MOTION.

ries of vibrations, and the ear is SIMPLY
instrument for registering them.
Light is also but a motion of a liner sort
of atmosphere; and so also is heat; and
by applications of magnetic electricity,
made to produce II light "aboVe the
brightness of the sun" so that now pho
torraphs can be we'll taken where day
light is excluded. Even taste appre-
ciates vibration, so that we all get to
know the coppery taste produced on the
by the galvanic effects OF certain
metals. In fact there is nc little
reason to suppose thata our fine senses
are only registers communicating to
ms certain motions or vibrations Of mat
ter. What matter itself is, apart from
or beyond these vibrations, of which it
is the subject. we know nothing. We
may believe that there is matter, but we
can only perceive the motions OF it. In
like manner we can know nothing OF
Life itself, exceptas a mode Of motion
a flame, hest,a combustion, Il series OF
vibrations. That there is memory, as
ISOLATION, will, personality, we know by
consciousness; but we can only consider
life practically as motion.
And in all motion there are two things,
and only two to be considered-force
and direction. Whence spring the
forces which we call life? Tho new
doctrine Of the mutual relation of forces
and their persistency show us it has
been generally conceded that force is
persistent; that is, eternal, not increas-
ing, not diminishing, only changing.
Every motion we make expends so much
force, which, however, is supplied oy
the food we eat. |, is transferred from
the muscle OF the OK TO our muscles,
from the grass to the OK, from the sun
light to the grass. Coal WAS called by
Stevenson so much ''bottled up sun
light" capable Of being converted into
the motive power Of a steam engine. In
fact, the forces of nature are converti-
BILE one into the other.
Il is the direction Of these forces that
forms the secret oflIving. So much food
dicested and so much strength follows,
laid up in store in every muscle and
nerve. But every motion of the arm,
every breath drawn, every passion in
dulged, every thought that moves the
brain-all cause a certain expenditure
of force. But there is in the choice and
will of man a directing energy that
guides and controls the whole, regulat-
ing the expenditure of vital energy.
What is the absolute nature ofthat force
we need not here discuss, but we are all
conscious that it exists. We choose to
move an arm, and we do it. Where the
power of choice comes from we may
leave an open question but when we
choose we expend so much vital energy
in carrying the choice into action.
The economy of life consists in direct
ing this life-force with the greatest SIM
plicity TO the most important results.
If an officer on the field Of battle fires q
cannon, two things are necessary-plen-
" of powder to carry his ball, and pre-
cisiou Of aim, without which the best
gun will eIpead Its force III sendiug the
shot wide of the object to be struck.
We have each of US so much vital force,
| but education, common sense, rectitude
of purpose, all give precision Of aim to
our lives. Mathematics, metaphysics,
morals, all help to give that deiniteness
and exac direction to life that makes
all its forces work harmoniously, simply
and with unobstru"ted and full power.
With most men, half the forces Of life
are counterscted by the other half, and
existence passes like a snip at sea in a
storm, when her sails are so adjusted
that the strength Of the wind on one
side prevents her being propelled by its
action on the other, and she lies to, mo-
~tionless between them. The glutton
takes food that should give him strength
of body and mind, but exhausts the vital
force in working off the overload, and
becomes weaker in body and more OBJ
fuse in mind than if he had taken but a
bare suficiency. He directs his vital
energies wrongly, aud thus wastes them.
The mere intellectualist, by over-study
or by attempting too great a variety,
gets his mind into q state Of confused
u~selessness, forgetting one day what he
had discovered the day previous, and
never able to concentrate his powers to
one great, strong, useful, or progressive
purpose. He who thus increaseth know
ledge i~ncreaseth sorrow. The man OF
supreme personal ambition bends all his
powers &c fight against truth itself when
it conflicts with his interests, and sooner
or later loses all or most of his force in
the deadlock struggle against all the
greatest forces Of the uniyerse-justice,
right, goodness. We can do nothing
against the truth, but for the truth, said
one Of the most successful strugglers on
the scale of ages, in life's great arena.
All the great forces of nature, of mind,
Of social life, work for the good and true
man. The forces within and those
around befriend each other. He rows
with the current, and then only are the
full forces of life felt and seen.
A Coop MIyE.-We were shown this
morning samples Of peculiar looking ore
from the Fisherman ledge Of the Bullion
Company in the Reveille district, which
bears a marked resemblance to that OBJ
tanned from the deeper workings of the
Highbridge and Transylvania in Silver
Bend. The ore is rich in deep colors,
which are beautifully blended. The
Fisherman is opened through an incline
forty fer deep, at the bottom of which
the vein has increased greatly in size,