natural fact, is but waiting to be verified-is but waiting to be unquestionably revealed to men, by whomsoever shall be able to search wisely enough to penetrate to those mysteries of the abiding constitution of the individual mind.

However inadequate the achievement compared with this strongly impelling conviction lying behind it as an almost infinite motive, yet in this conviction one may live and die, as absolutely expecting to live on elsewhere unceasingly, as we expect the present constitution of the universe to continue forever! Whence came the conception of immortality originally to mankind? Shall we say through a

revelation of its truth to the hope and to the clear apprehension of men fitted by their moral and intellectual gifts to comprehend and to appreciate the inestimable boon? The same appreciative mental insight must yet learn to demonstrate the truths of immortal life so clearly that the most skeptical can no longer find room for doubt; for, if unchanging personal identity is an irrevocable gift to each sentient being, it is and must be an essential part of the existing nature of things seen and unseen.

And if each personal life is one and simple in the structure of its being and is organically indestructible in every possible condition of its existence, then however repeated our mistakes, misapprehensions, and wholly inadequate conceptions of it, from our blind groping along a difficult pathway, still, in time, the human mind shall yet fathom the depths of this all important truth. Nothing which science has not yet done can ever shake the well-grounded assurance that life and immortality shall yet stand revealed together, one and inseparable, in the undimmed light of Nature.

THE PROBLEM STATED.

Triumphs of Chemistry.-Isomeric substances.-Theory leading to discovery. Properties dependent upon structure of Molecules.— Carbon isomers show that structure must mean more than mere arangement-Chemical poles or bonds.-Physical poles.-Fusel oils and crystals.-Structure in the chemical atom is related to many coöperative forces.-Extension and lines of force.-Is the ultimate atom, sentient or unsentient, indivisible and eternal?

OME of the most curious as well as the most

SOME

suggestive practical triumphs of modern science have been achieved by chemistry. Those savants who have learned to deal with the atoms of matter skillfully enough to thoroughly pull to pieces any substance till they reach its smallest known divisions, have learned also to rebuild many of these structures with an artistic skill which fairly rivals the handiwork of Nature herself.

What has Nature among all her treasures more delicate than the perfume of her roses? What do we prize more admiringly than the scent of her violets and her lilies of the valley? or what flavors are more enjoyable than those of her many delicious

fruits? In advance, every practical business man would have affirmed unhesitatingly that all these subtle odors and savors are inimitable. But at the World's Fair of London, in 1851, there were exhibited many varieties of artificial aromatic oils which were the exact counterparts of the perfumes of flowers and fruits. At our Centennial we shall see a still greater variety. All the countless brands of universal spiciness will doubtless be gathered there on exhibition. The best achievements of science always make haste into marketable commodities.

But the greatest marvel is yet to be mentioned. The essential oil of a large number of very pungent and widely unlike aromatic substances is found to be identical in chemical composition. Thus the odorous principle of lavender, of the gillyflower, of juniper, of savin, of bergamot, of pepper, of lemon, of cubebs, of neroli, of terpentine, ect.-all substances about as unlike in odor and flavor as can well be imagined—are one and all composed of ten parts of common tasteless carbon to sixteen parts of perfectly inodorous oxygen.

If it is possible to crowd a more pungent set of

characters into one family, I do not know of it. But the aromatic group is a large one; some of the members masquerade in quaint disguises and they are liable to turn up any day in some new part. The pleasant, fruity, agreeable flavor of the apple, and the unpleasant, disagreeable taste of rancid butter, are composed of the same elements combined in the same proportions. There is also a third triplet in this group, which is composed, as both the others are, of four atoms of carbon, eight of hydrogen, and two of oxygen. This third form of the same chemical substance was discovered, like the planet Neptune, as the predicted result of scientific theory.

Many other isomeric substances have been obtained in the same way.

Hundreds of learned

and eager minds, supplemented by deft fingers and by delicate, ingenious mechanical appliances, have been busy for years past in laboratories, seeking, through the varied action of different chemical agents upon the same compounds, to discover the internal structure of the molecules in substances generally, and especially in those which are unlike in properties while they have yet the same chemical constitution.