Structure of Matter. 67 bodies are concerned, just as an atom would. Pass on with Sir William Thomson and Helmholtz, to the vortex-atom theory, that matter consists of rotating portions of a something which fills the whole of space, that is vortex-motion of an everywhere present fluid. Add to this, every so-called atom of any one substance, wheresoever we find it, on the earth, in the Sun, or coming to us from cosmical spaces, possesses precisely the same physical properties. Then take a drop of water, and by means of a galvanic battery decompose it into the constituent gases; this shows that the parts may be separated until they are so small, that if again divided, the halves or parts are no longer similar to one another; but one is oxygen, the other is hydrogen. Thus we have arrived at the grained structure of the whole. How finely grained water is, may be seen from the fact, that were it possible to draw out a film 100,000,000th of an inch in thickness, it would probably still contain a few particles of water in its thickness.1 As to the ultimate particles of the elements, by a rough process, Cauchy obtained the 400,000,000th part of an inch as their diameter. By a calculation upon what is called the electricity of contact of different metals, it is thought to have been ascertained that the grained structure must exceed the 700,000,000th part of an inch. By the molecular motion of gases, a result has been obtained that the 500,000,000th part of an inch is the size of the particles. These points or atoms manifest powers of attraction and repulsion; march under three banners as gases, fluids, solids; but, it is probable that every one is capable of existing in all three forms. The mysterious complexity of their nature may be inferred from gases. The result arrived at by several inquirers as to the molecular motion of gases is, that the average distance between the several particles of a gas at the ordinary temperature and pressure of the air, must be something between the 6,000,000th part of an inch, and the 10,000,000th part of an inch." 2 The number of particles in a cubic inch of air is, approximately, about the number 3 with twenty cyphers after it; and as a large plum is to the whole earth, 1 "Recent Advances in Physical Science," p. 311: P. G. Tait, M.A. so is a particle of water to the whole drop; there being in that drop about 1026, that is, 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The particles of a gas are known to be free, detached from one another, and constantly flying about in all directions. The velocity of particles of hydrogen, according to Foulis' experiments, must be about 6055 feet per second at o C. This is a higher velocity than has ever been attained by a cannon ball. Clerk Maxwell and Boltzman have ascertained that in a mass of hydrogen at ordinary temperature and pressure, every particle, on an average, has 17,700,000,000 collisions per second with other particles; that is to say, in every second its course is changed 17,700,000,000 times; and, yet, the particles are moving at the rate of 70 miles the minute. When rude voices say, "The Lord never passeth by; not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the still small voice;" we cannot but marvel that some cunning creatures are so savage as not to perceive God unless He thunders on them. If we look at Nature in her working dress, we find that the elements are not apparently of the same relative use and importance. It is a startling fact that the variety of existences which Nature contains, far from exhausting all the forms and combinations of which the elements are capable, only uses a few. The solid globe, whithersoever our search extends, is composed of say-silicon, aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and oxygen. The broad ocean composes its vast masses of fluid principally from two elements-oxygen and hydrogen,-and the salt consists mainly of chlorine, sodium, and oxygen. The animal and vegetable worlds, innumerable in forms and functions of life, are chiefly built of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen. It is, indeed, astonishing that the great variety exhibited in the whole world is unfolded out of few materials. The Creator has taken but a handful of elements wherewith to form, in the main, the gorgeous structure of our dwelling. Do we ask why? The answer comes-as yet the world, to us at least, is rudimentary. Eternity and space contain endless surprises and possibilities; we know not what we shall be. There are latent forces of development which, when called forth, will exhibit new and exquisite powers. The elements, now Life Throb of the Universe. 69 little used, may hereafter display magnificent variety and surpassing beauty. The great Master has wrought charming music with few notes; what soul-stirring melodies will awake gladness when all the chords are touched! Now listen to the life-throb of our universe. By scientific use of our imagination, we may conceive all the mechanical, chemical, and vital operations of the world as resulting from an infinite congeries of invisible atoms or mathematical points of attraction and repulsion. These countless centres are so many starting points of motion, causing atoms to cluster into molecules, and molecules into masses. In other words: "Atoms and molecules are little magnets with mutually attractive and mutually repellent poles. The attracting poles unite, the repelling poles retreat; and vegetable, as well as mineral forms, are the final expression of this complicated molecular action." This life-throb of the whole visible and palpable world is a pulsation going forth every instant from the Eternal Energy, and bringing out from the invisible and intangible that which is visible and tangible. To develop the visible from the invisible, there must be a passage from the one to the other, or an ethereal medium, a stage in which the energy had passed from one and had not arrived at the other. Further, if we assume that all energies are reducible to One Energy, and that all forms of matter are derived from one primeval substance, it is demonstrably impossible for variety ever to have unfolded itself from this primitive physical unity. The change must have come from without, and even allowing that the change can be mechanically formulated, we must recognise in it the Unknown Energy. The variety called Nature did not evolve itself from unity, neither does Nature of itself guide or maintain the existing variety of continual change. Organic energy does not seem to be interchangeable with mechanical. No physical force that we know of can be converted into that which is called vital energy; least of all can it be counted as the correlative of mental change. Again and again there have been intrusions of new things. If chemical action differs from mechanical; if life is not chemistry, and 1 "Matter and Force," Professor Tyndall. certainly it is unknown in our laboratories; and if mind is. not matter; certainly many and great are the changes that have been wrought by new orders of energy. View the whole from another standpoint, from the brow of a hill when all is still, the breeze having died away. The air is clear, and we listen in vain to catch a sound other than the low murmur of waves breaking on the shore. The shepherd's flock slumbers beneath the elm-tree shadows, and cattle stand in shady hollows by the river-side. The green meadows, fresh and luxuriant, seem also asleep, and all nature is in repose. Is it indeed so? Come again, even after a little time, and a change has been wrought. Even the flowers which bedeck the soil, the very substance of those hills standing so firm, the deep sea so placid, the quiet still air, are all in motion. From year to year the lime-stone of the rock changes its hard lineaments; the elastic sod, pressed by our feet, is not the same, its materials are being altered, carried away and renewed; changeable the wind, so the sea ; all things are working together, and that for ever, in vast numberless complications, every one the child and parent of other. The Guide and Ruler of this progress setting a limit to the destructive and wearing-down processes, the Restorer of our globe in its features of beautiful fabric, is not nature itself but the Eternal, of whom every phenomenon is a manifestation, and of whom beauty and brightness are the features. The contemplative mind beholds every day the passage of things invisible into sight, the transfer of the seen into the unseen, and all is natural. The passing away of the world might be called not so much an act of violence, as a pause, and the annihilation of solid spheres rather a rest than the crash of destruction. We reverently lay all our science at the feet of the Eternal. He the Absolute, before and within, beyond and above the universe, gathers the links of an endless chain. of conditioned existence from the depths of His Own intelligent and developing power. "Oh purify my eyes, More and yet more, by love and holy thought, Thy presence, Holiest One, to recognise." The theory which reduces the universe to mere atoms, Type of Nature's Book. 71 energy, and empty space, and thence deduces the whole series of phenomena, encounters an obstacle at the outset : atoms seem absolutely unchangeable. The monistic doctrine of homogeneous atoms will not work, and many atoms of many kinds explain no property of body which has not been previously attributed to the atoms themselves. Pulverising the world into particles, next to nothing, in order to hit upon something just beyond, is a hopeless task; and to imagine that out of the superlatively little may be drawn the secret of the world's power and constructive skill, is a strange delusion. Starve the atom as you will, and then make a miniature of it in your thought; but having dropped the attributes, how can you pick them up again? Make its essence to be extension or palpableness, or merge it into dynamic points, unextended centres of attraction and repulsion, you cannot get to the full end, nor arrive at the beginning of things. The final simplicity of the atom must include internal movements; when these are sufficiently excited, rays are emitted of a length which is in measure of the time of vibration of the molecule. This change of form, and these internal movements, are impossible without shifting parts and altered relations, but then your atom is a wonderful whole, made up of many parts. The atomic theory is no explanation of the creative mystery: the mystery remains. Reverse the process :-The eye of modern science seeks, but findeth not, some original undivided stuff as the continuous substratum of all forms and distinctions. We cannot get beyond an infinitude of discrete atoms, which, though conformed with precision to a constant type, have different internal vibrations, are agitated by movements carrying them in all directions, and form the myriad types with which is printed the Book of Nature. By means of these elements we produce, without any change in kind or proportion, substances with marked differences of physical and chemical property. Several distinct compounds are formed out of the same relative weights of carbon and hydrogen. Simple carbon appears as charcoal and the diamond. Apparently trivial changes in atomic conditions effect changes of the most unexpected and startling order. Phosphorus is, in the |