LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Class

THE CREATION OF MATTER

OR

MATERIAL ELEMENTS, EVOLUTION,
AND CREATION

FROM REVIEWS OF THE FIRST EDITION.

" It is an education to study this book. It will strengthen
the faith, and deepen the wonder of all Christian thinkers
who turn over its pages." — London Quarterly Review.

"This book is a pleasure. It is the easiest introduction
to science that an outsider can desire. It is a good book, a
Christian book, but it is never traitorous to physical science.
This is the book to get for the purposes of the Bible class,
for sermon suggestion also, and for personal enjoyment." —
Expository Times.

" Deserves careful study. It is full of reliable matter,
and ought to be widely read. It should be of great use." —
Principal SALMOND in the Critical Review.

" An exceptionally thorough study of a profound and ever-
recurring problem. '. ... The acuteness with which the
argument is worked out is not more marked than the lucid
and interesting style in which a difficult theme is discussed."
— Examiner.

"A storehouse of information, takes cognisance of the
most recent discoveries. Packed with thought, but there is
no obscurity. A timely and able volume." — Methodist
Recorder.

THE

CREATION OF MATTER

OR

MATERIAL ELEMENTS, EVOLUTION,
AND CREATION

THOMSON LECTURESHIP TRUST

BY

REV. W. PROFEIT, M.A.

GLENBUCHAT

SECOND EDITION

EDINBURGH
T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET

1904

•

PRINTED BY
MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED,

FOR

T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.

LONDON I SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED,

NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

INTRODUCTION

THE greatest questions which man can ask and attempt to
answer belong to the sphere of origins. We live in the
midst of perpetual motion and change, and see all things
flowing around us without ceasing. Are they as a river
proceeding from a source and running towards a goal?
Are they as a sea swaying to and fro, for ever to and fro ;
or as a whirlpool circling round and round, without begin-
ning or end 1 Have they existed from eternity as they
are now ; or have they assumed their present form by
chance aggregation, combination, and development; or
have they been built up out of eternal matter by an
eternal mind arranging, uniting, constructing ; or is matter
itself the work of mind ? Natural theology, arguing from
design, has hitherto only set itself to prove that the great
kosmos in the midst of which we find ourselves has not
existed from eternity as it now is, has not been formed by
chance, but has been arranged and built up by a mind of
immeasurable power. We propose to address ourselves
to the last question, and to show that matter is the crea-
tion of mind; that in its primal elements, however far
back we may have to go to find them, there are so many
signs of mind as to render it evident that they are the
product of an understanding that is infinite, of a hand
that is omnipotent. We must, in the first instance, deal
with the simplest forms of existence as at present known

vi INTRODUCTION

to science, show the riches of order and potency revealed
in them by their many and varied evolutions, and then
it will not be difficult to see and conclude that if these
be evolved from simpler primals, these primals have been
made, and so have, being primal, been created.

The subject therefore we propose to discuss in the
following lectures is Material Elements, Evolution, and
Creation.

Material elements consist of the atoms and molecules of
ordinary matter, and an ether, that fills all known space,
and is the medium by which light and heat motions and
electrical states are conveyed from place to place, from
sphere to sphere.

The term evolution is appropriate in every field of
science. Chemical compounds, as water, salt, sugar, are
evolutions by combination from simpler atoms. Light
and heat, life and complex organisations, are evolutions.
Darwin's great theory has by some been presented as if
it gave a sufficient account of all forms and complexities
of being and of the manner of their becoming. Step by
step during the ages of ages the elements have of them-
selves built up the universe. Gradually and slowly they
have marched onward and upward, taking ages for single
steps, until they have reached heights of sublimity and
heavens of order, and crowned their work in natures
capable of investigating it with eyes of intelligence, and
of ascribing to it glory in the highest.

The most effective way of meeting this contention,
which has troubled many minds, is to study the elements
as they are revealed in their various evolutions, and to
show that their operations are everywhere guided by
mind, and that they are so richly and exquisitely endowed
and ordered, that their existence must be due to a great
understanding.

INTRODUCTION vii

Creation deals with questions as to the ground of being
of the elements themselves. Are they self -existent ? Have
they existed from eternity ? Have they known a begin-
ning? Have they been evolved from simpler primals?
Have the primal elements, wherever they may lie, been
created ? It is, as we have said, our purpose to show that
to a creating hand their existence is due. But first we
must consider the doctrine of signs and signs of mind.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

THE author of this work avails himself of the oppor-
tunity of a second edition being called for to make a few
remarks.

He feels exceedingly thankful for the favour with
which it has been received. Critics have welcomed it
in terms most gratifying, and have presented it as a com-
plete answer to Haeckel, whose works so much is being
done to spread over the country.

Sir John Herschel propounded the idea that atoms of
matter have the characteristics of manufactured articles.
In April 1873, the present author contributed an article
to the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, in which
it was argued from the relations subsisting between
material elements and perceiving natures, that they were
made for each other. In September of the same year,
Professor Clerk Maxwell read his famous paper before the
British Association, and at the close maintained that atoms
of Hydrogen being in all respects the same, and measured
to the nicety of standard measures, have their existence
due to mind. Lord Kelvin's letter to the Times shows

viii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

that he has come to the same conclusion. In this work
the argument is carried through various sciences, and
applied to atoms, the Ether, Life, and perceiving natures.

The main object aimed at is to show that all things
have their existence and form due to an Infinite and
Eternal Mind; and the argument is of force to this end,
whatever view may be taken of matter, even if it be
regarded as a system of phenomena. The phenomena are
undeniable facts of consciousness, and have all the char-
acteristics on which the conclusion depends.

In composing these lectures, the writer felt that he was
face to face with an order exceedingly great and marvel-
lous. He was brought close to it ; he was inspired by it.
He laboured to show what he saw, to raise the thoughts
of his hearers to a sense of the glory of the operations of
mind on matter, and so impart weight to the argument.
In presence of the riches and splendour of the signs of
mind in the Universe, it is impossible to be cold, it is
impossible not to kindle ; and surely the force of the
reasoning derived from them is enormously increased,
when we endeavour by language and illustration to do
justice to them.

CONTENTS

I. SIGNS AND SIGNS OF MIND

PAGE

The Doctrine of Signs — Indirect — Direct — Signs of Past Action
— Intelligent Natures — Mind on Matter — Matter an Ideal
Form of Being for revealing Mind— Human Fashioning —
Power of Mind in Proportion to the Signs — Signs on the
Dispositions and Organisations of Matter — On Matter itself
— AU Matter ordered 1

II. ATOMS AND MOLECULES

Atoms — Number of Divisions — Numbers — Weight — Size —
Forms— Molecules — Motions in Gases — Effects of Heat—
Of Pressure — Diffusion — Law of Numbers . . .14

III. CHEMICAL COMBINATION

Affinity — Its Adjustments for Action Exquisite — Universal —
Uniform— Manifold— Varying in Measures— Persistent-
Stable — Argument Independent of the Atomic Theory . 29

IV. LIGHT— THE ETHER IN ITSELF

The Ether — A Medium differing from Ordinary Matter —
Nature of Wave Motions— Action in the Ether itself— Its
Motions Advance in Straight Lines — Velocity of Light,
Great, Suitable, combining Maximum of Forward Velocity
with Minimum of Forward Force — Waves — Transverse
Vibrations 42

x CONTENTS

V. LIGHT— THE ETHER IN ITS RELATIONS
TO MATERIAL MOLECULES

TAGS

Sources of Light — Reflection — Refraction — Scattering —
Absorption — How Colours are produced — The Ether
made for the Illumination of the Universe — The Finest
Test of Order in the Atoms and Molecules — Does the
Finest Work 56

VI. SOUND AND MUSIC

Causes — Media — Waves — Periodic Motions, Musical — Non-
periodic, Noises — Waves in Air, Water, Earth —
Reflection— Refraction— Velocity — Numbers of Waves —
Length — Vibrations of Strings — Rods — Plates — Bells —
Resonance 75

VII. LIFE— PROTOPLASM

Protoplasm — Its First Appearance — Complex Construction —
Environment — Evolution from Elements — Haeckel's
Carbon Theory— Special Life Element . . . .94

VIII. CELLS AND ORGANISATIONS

Cells— Their Construction, Multiplication, and Modification —
Egg-Cells — The Building up of Animal Forms — Great-
ness of the Work— Mind in it— Wealth of Order in the
Cells 109

IX. THE PERCEIVING AND PERCEIVED
NATURES

The Senses— The Brain— The Elements in it— A Special Ele-
ment—Union to the Brain, Perfect, Stable, of Unlike
Natures — Correspondences in Perception ; Many, Varied
— Power of the Perceiving Nature— Many such Natures-
Sensations caused by Numbered Motions . . .124

CONTENTS xi

X. THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES

PAGE

Darwin— Factors in Evolution— Law of Progress— Selection-
Time Element 147

XI. CONCLUSION

Material Elements ordered not by Necessity, not by Chance,
but by Mind — Primal Elements ordered — Made and
Created — All Things ordered by Infinite Power and
Wisdom. . 162

or THE
UNIVER-.

ORNJ

THE CREATION OF MATTER;

OB

MATEEIAL ELEMENTS, EVOLUTION,
AND CKEATION

SIGNS AND SIGNS OF MIND

The Doctrine of Signs — Indirect— Direct — Signs of Past Action —
Intelligent Natures — Mind on Matter — Matter an Ideal Form of
Being for revealing Mind — Human Fashioning — Power of Mind
in Proportion to the Signs — Signs on the Dispositions and
Organisations of Matter — On Matter itself— All Matter ordered.

WHATSOEVER we are conscious of, or become acquainted
with, in ourselves, in the heavens above, or on the earth
beneath, hath its signs by which it reveals itself. By
signs the consciousness of our own existence is awakened
and maintained, the knowledge of our own nature and
powers is acquired. By signs external nature presses in
upon us and compels us, willing or unwilling, to acknow-
ledge its presence, to do homage to its every characteristic.
It creates in us a thousand, ten thousand, sensations of
great variety, and of every degree of energy. And every
i

2 THE CREATION OF MATTER

sensation is a sign. Every sensation has its meaning.
It speaks of relationship to us, of a power in things to
affect us; and according as they affect us we judge of
their nature, we ascribe to them their characteristics.
And wherever we perceive the same signs we infer the
same meanings, we draw the same conclusions. The
same signs in the same circumstances — and unless the
circumstances be the same, all the signs are not the same —
the same signs, we say, proceed from the same substances,
speak of the same natures.

Every distinct object is characterised by its own
qualities, powers, and appearances, and by them may be
distinguished from that which is characterised by dif-
ferent qualities, powers, and appearances. It is easy to
recognise light when we see it shining, fire when we
perceive it flaming and feel its heat. Every element in
nature, or combination of elements, has its signs by which
it proclaims its presence, and says, " It is I that am here."
It is easy to say of one substance, " It is iron " ; of another,
" It is gold." Oxygen has its signs ; hydrogen, nitrogen,
carbon, chlorine, iodine, phosphorus have their signs.
These signs no chemist distrusts ; his science is built on
them. He works in their midst with confidence; he
depends on them, and is not disappointed. All the
sciences have the same foundation. Every stone or rock
has its signs by which it can be known. Every plant
has its characteristics by which it can be distinguished.
Every animal has its marks by which it can be classified.
The laws of sound, light, heat, and electricity are learned
in the same manner. What are laws but substances or
elements acting alike, showing the same signs ?

The sciences glory in truth. Their votaries boast, and
justly, of the certainties which alone they permit to settle
in their fields. They seek truth in a scientific manner.

SIGNS AND SIGNS OF MIND 3

They investigate carefully. They conduct their researches
accurately. They collect facts ; they classify them. They
make experiments. They deduce laws. They form
theories. They test them. They prove them. They pass
them through the fire till they come forth as gold. And the
results of scientific work are magnificent. The structures
which science has built up are of supreme grandeur.
They have revolutionised the world. They have
advanced and glorified civilisation. They have scattered
wonders among the nations, brought them to the doors
of the peoples, quickened their life, elevated their intel-
ligence. And the whole work of science is the study of
signs. It is the interpretation of their meaning. Its
truths and laws are inductions from them. They are
signs generalised. And science has no hesitation, when
it perceives the clear signs of the presence and action of
any substance and force, in saying that that entity and
force are or have been present. There are circumstances
in which the conclusion is that they are present ; there
are circumstances in which it is that they have been
present. They have been present, for they have acted.
They have left their marks, they have imprinted their
characteristics, they have impressed their seal and image.
The science of geology is built on the signs of the past
action of forces; it endeavours to read the meaning of
the present condition of the crust of the earth, the
meaning of the phenomena now existing, and to come to
conclusions as to the causes which operated before the
ages and generations in producing thDse phenomena.
Here, they say, are the signs of the operation of water ;
these are water-formed rocks. Here are the signs of the
operation of fire ; these are fire-formed. And so when
the Dervish was asked, " How do you know that there
is a God ? " he answered, " How do I know that it was a

4 THE CREATION OF MATTER

camel, not a man, who passed my tent last night ? By
the footprints," was the reply. Pointing to the sun, he
said, " That is a footprint, and not of a man but a God."
How easily we may know in the morning, after a time of
drought, that rain has fallen in the night, and after rain
that a cycle, a waggon, a two and a four wheeled machine,
a man and a flock of sheep have passed along the road.
Eain has fallen plentifully, for the ground is soaked. A
cycle, a waggon, and machines have been on the softened
surface, for each has left its distinctive track. A man
and a flock of sheep have gone on before them, for the
footprints are clear, and of the latter there are many.
The signs are as certain as if we had seen the various
objects soaking the ground, making the tracks, printing
the footsteps. And it is our purpose to show that the
signs of mind on matter are as clear and distinct, as
trustworthy and certain, as if we had seen the Eternal
Mind marching in majesty through space, leaving suns
and planets behind Him as His footprints ; as if we had
been endowed with vision and understanding so powerful
as to be able to see them in their magnitude, and com-
prehend at a glance the order kindled in every particle.
We have had experience of the former signs, it may be
said, but not of the latter. But the latter are more
distinctive and clearer in meaning, more trustworthy and
certain, than the former, for they are in the very nature
of things, and that which is in the nature of things is
more to be trusted than all experiences.

From whatever distance also in the heavens a sign
comes, it is received without distrust ; unlimited faith
is placed in it ; its truth is never questioned ; its message
and interpretation obtain a settled place among the
verities of science. One of the most wonderful dis-
coveries of modern times is that of the lines in the

SIGNS AND SIGNS OF MIND 5

spectra of various substances burning. When sodium
is burning in a flame a bright line appears in the yellow
part of the spectrum. Potassium gives two bright lines,
one at each extremity. Strontium places its special signs
in the blue and orange, and six less distinct ones in the
red portion. Each substance has its own lines, and
scientists, when they see them, at once and confidently
affirm that the corresponding substances are present.
New elements have been discovered by means of lines
otherwise unaccounted for. From whatever source the
light proceedeth, though it come from the most distant
stars, when certain lines are seen, there is no hesitation
in inferring that the elements which those signs represent
are in the flames of those stars. The presence of T^ or
•5^3- millionth of a grain of sodium is sufficient to print
its characteristic line. A portion of lithium, less than
£ millionth of a grain, can thus be detected. A large
number of elements have in this manner been proved to
exist in the sun's atmosphere.

Mind has signs by which it makes itself known. It
shines in the human countenance ; it beams in the starry
eye ; it speaks in the tones of the voice and in words of
wisdom; it shows itself in skilful work. The face of
idiocy is easily recognised. The lack-lustre eye is quickly
understood. A meaningless voice and words tell their
own tale. A shapeless mass, rude disorder, blundering
workmanship, proclaim loudly what they lack. In
animals there is a measure of intelligence, as in the ox
that knoweth his owner, in the horse that will find his
way when the rider faileth. Wherever mind is present
in any existence, it acts with intelligence, it operates in
an orderly manner. It thinks, it plans, it measures, it
weighs, it shapes, it numbers ; it locates, adjusts, adapts,
arranges, and builds up complex unities ; it forms same-

6 THE CREATION OF MATTER

nesses, likenesses, harmonies, analogies ; and wherever we
see any form of being possessing in itself the power of
doing these things, we cannot but ascribe intelligence to it.

Matter is matter and not mind, and cannot therefore
show the same signs, do the same work. Every form of
being must act according to its nature. That which is in
it to do, it can do. That which is not in it to do, it
cannot do. Matter has its own nature and properties,
and can act according to them. But the particles of
matter have not in them conscious intelligence, and
consequently have not of themselves the power of
arranging and so of producing complex order. It is
mind and mind only, this form of being and none besides,
that can do such work. If any entity in its action
manifest clear signs of mind, it must itself possess it or
be directed by it.

Matter can receive and show signs of mind on it. JSTot
having intelligence in itself, it is specially fitted to reveal
it outside itself, moulding and fashioning it, and leaving
it moulded and fashioned and laden with clearest signs
that mind has been operating upon it. Particles being
powerless to think, choose, and determine their own and
each other's characteristics and modes of being and action,
so as to have measures and relationships to each other,
are the best form of existence on which mind may
exercise the variety of its powers, manifest itself, and
unfold its glories. They are what they are by no thought
of their own, by no intelligence in themselves, and there-
fore of necessity the order found throughout their borders
must be accounted for by postulating an intelligence
external to them. Matter, therefore, as being material in
its nature, is an ideal form of being for revealing mind,
for revealing the Eternal and Infinite Mind.

Material substances — wood, stone, gold, silver, iron —

SIGNS AND SIGNS OF MIND 7

wrought upon by human skill are made to assume forms
of beauty and usefulness. Implements of agriculture,
machinery at the service of every industry, mighty
engines, inventions without number, inventions which
delight us by their simplicity and ingenuity, or by their
complex order concentrated and directed to one end,
houses, mansions, churches, cathedrals, works of painting
and sculpture, these are the magnificent fruits of the
working of the human mind on the matter of our globe.

And everywhere signs of mind on material objects are
due to mind. Scientists act on this principle. Were it
possible for a geologist to find in a stratum of the earth's
crust a comb of wax, or a beaver's lodge petrified, would
he not at once affirm that living creatures of the same
nature and intelligence as now produce such works
existed on it in the age to which the stratum belonged ?
Were he to find, we do not say a brilliant invention or a
complex machine, but a few arrowheads or rude axes,
would he not quickly affirm them to be the work of man 1
A wonderful system of lines has been observed on the
planet Mars. They are like canals, and, says Sir Robert
Ball, "they often show such a degree of regularity as
would almost suggest the idea that they had been laid
down by intelligent guidance." The scientist cannot but
interpret signs of mind even as all other signs. No one,
in short, when he sees the clear marks of the working of
any nature and force, can do otherwise than admit that
there that nature and force have wrought ; when he sees
the results of the working of fire and water, that there
fire and water have been operating ; and so in like manner
when we see clear and distinct marks of intelligence
engraven on any object, it is impossible not to draw the
conclusion that there intelligence hath presided at the
engraving.

8 THE CREATION OF MATTER

The powers of mind operating must be according to the
signs. The signs of it in its working may not reveal it
always in the fulness of its strength, but it must be of a
power sufficient to produce its greatest works. It requires
an eye and mind to do the least ordered work, an eye
and mind to plough the fields. A single straight furrow
is sufficient to make evident that it hath been cut and
laid by intelligent guidance. It cannot be produced by
haphazard. Fields to which the masters of the craft
have gathered, and in which they have put forth their
strength and care, are a sight to see, so equal in every
respect, so finely laid, are the furrows.

Looking on the ploughman at work one imagines that
there is no difficulty in producing at least fair results,
that there is little to do but put to the hand and hold
fast. But, crede experto, believe one who has tried. All
was going well; the horses were moving forward with
staid dignity, the plough behaving unto perfection. I
went forward, and in my simplicity put to my hands.
But what ailed the plough 1 Had an evil spirit entered
it ? In a moment it was out, running on the surface. A
desperate effort got it into the soil again, but so deep that
it could not be moved at all. The rectification revealed
another peril : the furrow became so broad that it could
not be turned over ; and in the effort to set that right, it
became so narrow that there was nothing to turn over.
In like manner it needs an eye and mind to shepherd the
sheep, to plane the board, to shoe the horse, to copy with
the pen, to guide the locomotive. It requires higher
intelligence to shepherd the people, to be a great states-
man, a brilliant strategist, to produce the works of Homer,
Plato, and Newton, the statues of Phidias and Michael
Angelo, the masterpieces of the greatest painters, to
exhibit architecture like St. Paul's Cathedral, to produce

SIGNS AND SIGNS OF MIND 9

works involving arrangements, proportionings, and calcu-
lations, as in the great railway bridges over the Tay and
Forth. There is no labour on earth that does not need
an eye to see and a mind to think. There is no work,
nor device, nor trade, nor profession, that does not
require a great amount of teaching and practical training
to ensure an approach to perfection. Ordered work
cannot be done save by trained intelligence equal to its
production.

The signs of mind in nature go far beyond those which
appear in the works of man. They are on a greater scale.
They cover vaster fields. They are more wonderful, more
brilliant, and demand immeasurably greater power of mind,
than any produced by human intelligence.

There are many clear signs of mind in the dispositions
of matter and in its organisations. Linnaeus, being rallied
by a friend on his devotion to science, laid his hand on
the ground and said that underneath it there was as
much as would worthily occupy a human mind for a
lifetime in becoming acquainted with it. The earth is
filled, and overflows with the glories of mind. Every
blade of grass beams with it. Every common bush is
afire with it. The fowls of the air, the fish of the sea,
the beasts of the field glow with the brightness of its
shining. Man is its crowning splendour. The heavens
declare its glory. Sun, moon, and stars are radiant with
it, with a brilliancy eclipsing their own. We are encom-
passed by it as by a sea of lights. We are steeped in it,
bathed in it. In this field the natural theologian has
at his service, open to every eye, within reach of the
knowledge of every intelligent mind, a great variety of
organisations rich in complex and perfect order, and
marvellously adapted for their place in nature.

In the argument before us, we have not the facts on

io THE CREATION OF MATTER

which we ground our reasonings so plainly before the
eye, so easily within the reach of the knowledge of all
men, as in the former case. They are somewhat behind
the scene; they are covered over. Or if they lie, as
some of them do, on the surface, they are not so striking.
They do not so easily produce their full impression, pro-
claim all their meaning. Their meaning is not on the
surface. They hide their splendour. They dwell deep.
We must therefore dig for them, as for gold ; search for
them, as for treasures ; dive for them, as for pearls. We
must put forth our strength, and bend our mind eagerly
and earnestly to the task. And as it is when men dig
deep that they secure the richest treasures and reach ada-
mantine rock, so it is when we go down to the elements
of matter and consider them that we reach the greatest
truths, and a knowledge of them and confidence in them
that cannot be shaken, that cannot be undermined.

In our argument, we propose, as we have said, to show
that all matter is composed of ordered elements, and that
the order is due to mind. It is not a chaos. It does not
consist of substances inert, of particles separated from
each other by differences many as their own number,
particles without likeness, measure, relationship, or any
ordered characteristic. Had it done so, it would not
have formed a subject of knowledge. Laws of action
could not have been predicated of it. No general affirma-
tions could have been made regarding it, or any portion
of it. The mind could have done nothing with it,
would have found nothing characterising it to think
about, nothing of its own kind of operations to see and
to understand, to class and to name. It would have
presented no field for scientific investigation, but would
have been a barren desert, a region of darkness, rudis
indigestaque moles. A science of chemistry, of physics,

SIGNS AND SIGNS OF MIND n

of any kind, would have been impossible. But it is not
so with matter. It yields itself easily and spontaneously
to distribution into divisions, placing this particle in this
division, that particle in that division, and every particle
in some division. Not merely a select few, but all
material particles, may be scientifically examined, their
qualities determined, and, according to measured like-
nesses and differences, placed among their kind, every
one of which they in every respect resemble. Of all
kinds, many general statements may be made. Of each
kind, many affirmations may be advanced, announcing
the laws of their action and the properties distinguishing
them. They thus open up large fields for scientific inves-
tigation, in which an immense wealth of knowledge may
be reaped. In short, matter in itself is full of thought.
It is crammed with ideas. It is a scene, extending before
the mind beyond all limits, and radiant with adjustments,
adaptations, and arrangements. It is full of thoughts
which we can think. It is crammed with ideas which
we can apprise and enthusiastically admire. It is radiant
with adjustments, adaptations, and arrangements which
we can measure, classify, and name. Its condition is
ideal. Its order, as it reveals itself, thrills the investigator.
Every discovery is a prize to the discoverer, is a rapture,
and moves him almost irresistibly to cry out, tvprjKa, evp^/ca,
I have found, I have found. What, then, has thought
the thoughts and carried them out ? What has conceived
the ideas and realised them? What has invented the
adjustments, adaptations, and arrangements, and shown
them working unto perfection on the fields of fact?
What has imparted to all matter its ordered condition,
made it the mind's delight, the understanding's rapture 1
Not matter itself, not the abstract thoughts and ideas,
lor thoughts cannot spring where mind is not, much less

12 THE CREATION OF MATTER

can they be carried out; ideas cannot be formed where
there is no understanding to form them, much less can
they be realised; adjustments, adaptations, and arrange-
ments cannot be devised when there is no devising
nature, much less can they be produced. These are not
workers, but the work done. A perceiving mind, great
as the greatness of the work, has imparted to matter the
dazzling order which distinguishes it.

It will not be difficult to see where mind has been at
work on matter. The marks of its hand it will be easy
to distinguish. It prints its footsteps brilliantly. Its
work is inimitable. We can imagine in some cases
different physical substances and forces leaving behind
them traces very difficult to differentiate. But what
save mind can do the work of mind ? What can fill its
place, produce its effects, and show its sail of glory?
Chance cannot. It can go only a little way. It can take
but single steps. It is the easiest thing in the world
in most cases to distinguish between the fruits of the
operation of chance and those of the operation of mind.
Blind forces cannot. No unintelligent ground or prin-
ciple of existence can. No nonentity can. No entity
that is not intelligent can produce, on an extended scale
and with consummate perfection, really clear and brilliant
signs of mind. Where the signs are indistinct, where
there are only the faintest shadows, the most distant
resemblances to the work of intelligence, it may be
impossible to determine whether intelligence has been
present and has acted ; but where the signs are of dazzling
clearness, where the marks are multitudinous and the foot-
prints of matchless form, there cannot, there assuredly
ought not to be, the least hesitation in coming to a con-
clusion. If a small portion of any kind of food tasted
slightly of salt, one might not be sure that it had been

SIGNS AND SIGNS OF MIND 13

salted ; but if the whole tasted of it, tasted strongly of it,
there could be no doubt. The whole world in all its
atoms, molecules, and entities of every kind, is salted with
mind. He that studies the sciences tastes of it at every
point, tastes it in its strength ; it stirs his admiration and
kindles his enthusiasm ; his intellect glories in the law
and order which prevail. No sane man doubts that
the sea is salted with salt, doubts that it is salt with
which it is salted. The evidence is as overwhelming and
irresistible that the earth, and matter in its every atom,
and every entity known, is salted with mind, has on it
the clearest marks that it is the work of mind.

II

ATOMS AND MOLECULES

Atoms— Number of Divisions — Numbers — Weight — Size — Forms
— Molecules — Motions in Gases — Effects of Heat — Of Pressure
— Diffusion — Law of Numbers.

I. Atoms — The number of kinds. — The number known
is constantly changing. It is now increasing, now dimin-
ishing. It has happened that a supposed element has
been broken up, and been proved to be not simple but
compound. New elements are also being discovered, as
in the case of argon. The number has been set down at
various figures not much under seventy. Is not this a
most impressive fact? Is it not a condition of matter
full of meaning? Considering the amount of it in the
universe and the number of particles at every point, is it
not an exceeding marvellous phenomenon that they are
all so ordered as to fall easily and perfectly into line
under about seventy divisions? There are not seventy
thousand, not seventy million, not seventy billion, but
seventy. Had they been vast in number, they would
have made a medley so multifarious as to be unworkable,
they would have rendered an ordered and compact system
of things an impossibility. It is not easy to reduce
ordered but mixed multitudes to their natural order. It
demands perception and attention, thought and care.
A housewife, with a large amount of goods and many
considerations of taste to determine, is ready to be almost

14

ATOMS AND MOLECULES 15

distracted arranging them in a new home. If there
were few things of two or three kinds, the task would be
easy. Thirty thousand volumes would tax for no short
period a born librarian to arrange in the best order. It
has taken weeks, and sometimes months, of painstaking
care and experimental testing to determine single numbers,
a 12, a 14, a 16, representing atomic weights. Investi-
gators, caring only for truth, have counted no amount of
careful research and persistent labour too great to win
the prize of a single definite and accurate result. But in
such cases the order existed, and needed only to be
brought into view. To bring the order into existence,
hoc opus, hie labor, this is the work, this is the labour.
To make the goods, to produce the volumes, needed
thought and labour greater far than to arrange them.
And surely to deal with every particle of matter in the
universe, so as to make it of a special type, to order all,
so that they might come under types so few and compact,
demanded an amount of thought and work of overwhelm-
ing greatness, and could not be the result of chance.

It is not a small thing also that the number should be
so suitable for the finite minds of earth, enabling them to
build up a science of them. To bring all matter under
command so perfect, into a state of fitness for work so
magnificent, into a condition so suitable for spreading out
before the intelligences which have appeared in the
world most interesting fields of knowledge, was assuredly
of a mind which knew the end from the beginning.

This point is strengthened in that the elements are still
further divisible into classes : into two, as metals and non-
metals ; into three, as gases, liquids, and solids. The
power of classifying and naming belongs to mind only.
Much more does the power of producing the possibilities
of classification belong to it. By far the larger number

16 THE CREATION OF MATTER

of elements are metals. They number over fifty. The
particles belonging to them can all be put into one class,
and called by one name. They have the same nature,
the same metallic lustre. Gases, liquids, and solids have
their respective temperatures and pressures, at which
they are gases, liquids, and solids.

The number of atoms existing. — A cubic inch of a
perfect gas, when the barometer marks 30 and the
thermometer stands at 32°, contains 1023 molecules,
i.e. a hundred thousand million billion, and in certain
cases that means two or three or four or more times as
many atoms. A cubic inch of water gives 1800 cubic
inches of steam, i.e. water in the gaseous form, and,
therefore, to obtain the number of molecules in every
cubic inch of water, we must multiply 1023 by 1800, and
as there are two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen in
the molecule of steam, we must multiply that product by
three. "We thus reach the conclusion that there are
hundreds of billions of billions in a cubic inch of water.
In the feeblest spring and tiniest well, in the Don's
f ountainhead, where, with a small vessel, you may quench
your thirst, how many are there ? In the springs and
rills and streams that feed it, how many 1 In all earth's
rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans the numbers are over-
whelmingly vast. The smallest amount of matter that
can be seen by the microscope contains from 60 to
100 million molecules. In our persons, in our houses,
in a great city, in a molehill, in a round mound, in a
ridge of mountains, the multitudes go far beyond num-
bers that can be named. To set down the numbers in
the earth would need not a page but a field of paper.
But the telescope has made known to us that the sun,
moon, and stars, which to the naked eye seem so small,
are mighty globes, and some of them so large that the

ATOMS AND MOLECULES 17

earth is insignificant in comparison. And though by the
naked eye only two or three thousand stars can be seen,
the telescope reveals in the Milky Way many millions.
And these are suns, and have doubtless planets attending
them. These millions belong to one nebula, and nebulae
are in thousands, and consist either of suns and systems
or of matter being gathered into suns and systems. And
the spectroscope tells us that the same substances to a
large extent are burning in them as in our own globe.
And beyond the spaces swept by our telescope there
may be immeasurably vaster numbers of suns and systems
than within them, so that to the imagination winging its
way through immensity, the poet might justly say and
sing —

" Before thy path Infinity !

Fold thy wings drooping, 0 thought eagle swooping ;

0 phantasy, anchor, thy voyage is o'er ;

Creation, wild sailor, rolls on to no shore."

And all the matter that is, we repeat, is ordered and
crammed with thought from its circumference to its core,
from its giant orbs to its minutest points, from its most
complex organisations to its minutest atoms. And on
every atom the finger of mind has printed itself. He
counts the number of the stars ; to His understanding
there is no number. He counts not the stars only but
the atoms, the atoms one by one, the atoms every one —
those in a cubic inch of gas, of water, those in all waters,
those in a molehill, in the whole earth, in the sun, and
within range of His influence, in every sun in the
heavens, in all nebulae, in all space. Their numbers He
knows to a unit. His thoughts and painstaking care and
matchless hand are on every one.

Their weight. — The weight of substances is of first
importance in chemistry. The greatest accuracy in

i8 THE CREATION OF MATTER

weighing is necessary. A chemical balance is therefore
an instrument of exquisite delicacy. It is suspended,
when in use, on a fine knife edge of agate, and removed
from it on every occasion when it has served its purpose,
to prevent wear and tear. Its arms are measured with
greatest care, to ensure their perfect equality in substance
and in length. By these means friction is reduced to a
minimum, and its sensibility to the least addition or
withdrawal intensified to a maximum. It is capable of
determining weight to the one-millionth of the substance
weighed.

Indirectly, and in different ways, on rational principles,
atoms can be weighed. The weights of sun, moon, and
stars can be scientifically determined, and so it is possible
to weigh also the smallest particles. It is easy to weigh
ounces, pounds, hundredweights, tons. It is not so easy
to weigh atoms. But the results are as real, as definite,
as certain. The weights are of course comparative.
There must be a standard of comparison, and hydrogen,
as being the lightest of substances, is adopted. Hydrogen
is 1, carbon 12, nitrogen 14, oxygen 16, magnesium 23'94,
aluminium 2 7 '3, phosphorus 30, chlorine 35 -5, iron 55*9,
zinc 66-9, silver 107, gold 196'2, mercury 199-8, and
others between these weights, and above 200. Weigh
an equal number of atoms of these elements, and the
weights are always according to these proportions. A
number of carbon atoms are always twelve times heavier
than the same number of hydrogen. Atoms of the same
kind are thus practically of the same weight. They are
attracted in the same measure by other atoms and aggre-
gates of atoms. There is not a billionth of difference
between them. Every atom of hydrogen weighs alike.
Every atom is fitted to be a standard measure of weight.
Every atom of carbon throughout the vast realm of the

ATOMS AND MOLECULES 19

existence of that substance is borne towards attracting
masses by the same measure of force. Every atom of
nitrogen or oxygen in the atmosphere encompassing the
whole earth is drawn towards its centre to the same
extent. Atoms of sodium, if on the earth or in the sun,
in Sirius or distant Orion, or wherever in the universe
they exist, are true, each one to its kind, attract and are
attracted even as they. It is so with every element.

It is, we say, indirectly that atoms can be weighed.
It is far from the power of man to separate atom from
atom, weigh the one against the other, and note the
perfection of their balance. It is far beyond his power
to devise and make a balance for an experiment so fine.
He cannot deal with single atoms. He lacks, even when
aided by the microscope, the perceptive power and the
refinement of touch capable of distinguishing, handling,
or in any way singling them out and acting on them.
And yet single atoms have been in some way dealt with,
handled, and acted on. Every particle has been weighed,
and weighed to a nicety, is of a weight that corresponds
with minutest exactness, with that of the countless par-
ticles of its kind. Never was balancing like it. The
greatly differing weights in the different kinds of atoms
so small, render more impressive the sameness in the
same element. What, then, hath weighed them with
such accuracy ? Where were the balances found ? What
possessed the power of using them in such a fashion?
What made all the atoms of hydrogen of one lightness ?
What made those of oxygen sixteen times heavier, those
of all the elements just their own numbers of times
heavier? Let a man produce before a company huge
scales of accuracy so exquisite that a grain of dust would
disturb the balance ; let him put into the one a mighty
mass of iron, into the other of copper ; let him vary the

20 THE CREATION OF MATTER

substances, and consequently the size of the masses ; let
him show a large number to choose from, and in every
case let there be a perfect level and stillness of the scales
let there be accuracy such that the least dust would be
seen to disturb the balance — would not every witness
be filled with admiration, and ask in wonder how such
accuracy could be attained, and be sure that much
thought, and planning, and closest attention, and care
had gone before 1 Would not every witness regard with
scorn the suggestion that all was the result of chance ?
And when we consider the elements of the universe,
their infinitesimal smallness and the nicety of the weigh-
ing with which they are weighed, what ought to be the
boundlessness of our wonder, the fire of our admiration ;
how ought we to yield our whole being to the conviction
that a seeing and understanding nature hath done this,
that a hand of inconceivable power and fineness of touch,
associated with matchless intelligence, hath accomplished
it!

The size. — Four lines of experiment and of argument
lead to the same conclusion as to their size. They are
from T\j- millionth to T^j- millionth of a centimetre in
diameter. Lord Kelvin imagines a globe of water about
six inches in diameter, magnified to the size of the earth,
and each molecule magnified in the same proportion. The
molecules would in this case be larger than in a heap of
small shot, but probably smaller than in one of footballs
of about six inches in diameter.

The atoms of the same substances are practically of the
same size. There is the same amount of matter in them.
They occupy space. They are extended. They are small,
but of the same smallness. They are minute, but the
exactness of their correspondence in minuteness is still
more minute. Every atom of hydrogen fills the same

ATOMS AMD MOLECULES 21

space. Every atom of oxygen occupies the same sized
point. The atoms of carbon, nitrogen, and all other
substances do the same. All the elements might be
represented by lines of indefinite length, and the same
lines formed of points of the same size. Here are
measurings the most amazing. Here is the finest deter-
mination of sizes on a scale of immeasurable greatness, in
multitudes without number. What, then, determined
those sizes 1 What measured them with an exactness so
minute 1 What produced a correspondence so amazing ?
How can we account for all matter being in its elements
so ordered in magnitude as to be like, say, seventy lines
of points so fine as to be invisible, and all those in the
same line of the same size? Where could the pen be
found to produce such representing points? where the
hand of perception so keen, the hand of touch so fine, as
to form them ? What could do such work but mind, a
wondrous mind associated with perceptive power the
keenest, and a hand and finger of transcendent fineness
of touch ?

Their shape. — Lord Kelvin has propounded a theory of
vortex ring atoms. They are in the shape of rings, and
have vortex motions. They form the parts of a perfect
fluid which fills space continuously and is absolutely
mobile. The fluid is a perfect fluid, and friction is
wholly absent. They must be of some perfect form in
order to be suitable for chemical combination. What,
then, shaped them so suitably? What can mould and
fashion? What can form into regular figures? What
but mind and mind alone ?

II. Molecules. — A molecule is not the same as an atom.
The latest chemistry carefully distinguishes them. Atoms
are the smallest particles that can be obtained by any
means chemical or physical. Molecules are the smallest

22 THE CREATION OF MATTER

that can be obtained by physical. The atoms and
molecules of the elements are for the most part different.
In mercury and iodine at a certain temperature the
molecule and atom are the same ; the molecule, i.e., con-
sists of one atom. But in a volume of oxygen gas, of
hydrogen, nitrogen, chlorine, a molecule consists of two
atoms. The atoms of these substances refuse to remain
single. It is not good for them to be alone, and rock to
and fro in solitary activity. When they can find no
other atom to which to attach themselves, when all
around are atoms of their own likeness and family, they
fasten on and link themselves to each other. In a jar,
therefore, of these gases, the separate and independent
molecules are each composed of two atoms. Ozone is a
cluster of three atoms of oxygen. Phosphorus clusters
in four, arsenic in four, sulphur from 450° to 550° in
sixes. The atoms of mercury and of iodine at a certain
temperature mate not with each other, and in this all are
alike. The atoms of hydrogen mate in twos, wherever
hydrogen is found, and are followed in this by nitrogen
and chlorine. Oxygen rejoices in twos, and becomes
exhilarating in threes, and it is always so with it. All
phosphorus atoms are so constituted as to seek associa-
tion with each other in fours. Sulphur is hard to satisfy
with company, and its every atom shows the same covetous
or affectionate nature. How perfectly the atoms of sub-
stances are made alike in this respect — for made we cannot
help concluding that they are !

Motions of molecules. — In a volume of gas what are
the molecules doing ? Is each resting in its place ? When
a jar is filled with them, when they have had time to
settle after being conveyed into it, do they become still
and rest in one position 1 No, they continue in motion.
Every molecule in the jar is moving to and fro without

ATOMS AND MOLECULES 23

ceasing. They encounter the side of the jar in the
vastness of their number, and are continually beating and
pressing on it. They encounter each other, and billions
of collisions are taking place every instant; billions of
blows are being given and received. Everyone gives as
good as it gets, and gets as good as it gives, though all is
of the feeblest, and no clash of battle is heard. Great is
the commotion among them. Great is their activity and
multiplied their motions. They are not always moving
every one with the same velocity. The mean or average
velocity is, however, always the same in the same gas.
It is different in different gases. The measure of
difference is determined by the density — the greater the
density, the less is the velocity ; the less the density, the
greater is the velocity. It is, however, to the square root
of the density that it is inversely proportional. The mean
velocity of hydrogen molecules, when the temperature
is at the freezing point and the barometer showing a
pressure of 30 inches, is 6097 feet per second. Every
molecule in a jar, therefore, is running to and fro with
great rapidity, and covering a distance of 1 mile 272
yards in a second. The density of oxygen is sixteen
times that of hydrogen. The square root of 16 is 4,
and the velocity of oxygen molecules is one-fourth that
of hydrogen, or 1524 feet per second. The density of
chlorine is 35 '5, say 36, and the square root is 6, and
therefore the velocity 1016 feet. In a jar of hydrogen
every molecule is travelling 69*27 miles per minute.
In a cubic inch the distance accomplished by all is
69-27 x 1023, and if myriads of jars were tested, and the
number of miles calculated, that would practically be
the proportional number. In oxygen and chlorine jars
the number of miles covered by a molecule would be
17-32 and 11 '5 4 respectively, and for those in a cubic

24 THE CREATION OF MATTER

inch, these figures multiplied by 1023. Wherever jars of
these substances can be obtained, wherever they exist,
each in like circumstances execute their motions with
like rapidity, making the same number of miles per
second, per minute, per day, per year, to the praise of the
hand that made those of the same kind so perfectly
alike, that meted out to them their properties in measure
so exact.

All gases are acted on by heat in the same measure.
The average velocity is increased by it. The higher the
temperature, the greater the velocity; the lower the
temperature, the less the velocity. Could a gas be
cooled down to -273'72° C. or -462-696° F., its
molecules would be reduced to stillness. There would
be in them no motion, no energy, no heat. The
volume is also increased by heat. The measure of
enlargement has been determined. By every degree of
increase of heat a gas expands by ^^rd of its volume ;
or 273 cubic inches under an increment of 1° C.
becomes 274, of 10° 283, of 27° 300. An increase of
273° doubles the volume. Let the same volume of
hydrogen, oxygen, and chlorine, and any number of
gases, be subjected to the same increase of temperature,
to an increase of ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred degrees,
all will keep the same pace in enlarging. Each will
increase, step by step, according to the heat increment,
and each step will exactly correspond, and the volumes
throughout will be of the same measure. The measure
is finer far than any to which man is equal. The steps
are more accurate than the tread of armies. Every
particle of all the gases knows the increased room to
demand, and, however little it may be, demands it. They
are in trillions, in septillions, or it may be in centillions ;
but so perfectly constituted are they, so entirely are they

ATOMS AND MOLECULES 25

under law, that they ask not an infinitesimal part of a
hair's-breadth more, and will not take an infinitesimal part
of a hair's-breadth less, and so the measure of increase,
which their mighty numbers claim, varies not.

The volume of gases is acted on in the same measure
by pressure. It is inversely proportional to the pressure
to which they are subjected. Increase the pressure to
double the amount, and the volume is reduced to one-
half j to fourfold the amount, and the volume becomes a
fourth. Reduce the pressure from four pounds to two,
and the volume is doubled; to one, and it is enlarged
fourfold.

The expansion and contraction of gases, according to
the measures of heat or pressure brought to bear upon
them, are thus the same for all substances in the gaseous
form. They all act in the same manner. They have
their motions and forces and condition ordered, measured,
and balanced so as to obey the same laws. There are
none inert, disobedient, or rebellious among them. They
are all active, all in perpetual motion, all exerting and
yielding to force, and alike related to the physical forces
which can be brought to bear on them to determine their
relative positions, all responding to their action with the
same readiness.

Diffusion of gases. — The diffusive power of gases is of
vital importance. When they do not enter into combina-
tion by contact, they pass through each other, and become
a mixture. However much they differ in specific gravity,
and though the heaviest be lowest, it will ascend, and the
lightest will descend. Fill a jar with hydrogen, and if
the temperature and pressure continue the same, there
cannot be put into it more than the right and definite
number of molecules. The same number of oxygen
molecules may, however, be added, and also of other

26 THE CREATION OF MATTER

gases. By certain arrangements such a quantity of water
may be poured into a glass globe as, when raised to the
boiling point and wholly evaporated, will fill the globe.
Pour in more water, and not another molecule will at the
same temperature and pressure be added. But if ether
be substituted, the same number of molecules will rise
among the steam. A third and a fourth vapour may be
added, and each will be of the same number. The
molecules of steam thus prevent any more of their own
kind from rising among them from the water than
according to temperature and pressure, but they welcome
those of ether, or of any other kind. The ether molecules
also determine their own number, but they do not stand
in the way of other kinds.

Each gas has its own measure of diffusive force. It is
inversely proportional to the square root of its density.
A bottle of hydrogen, open to the air, will lose 9 4 '5 per
cent, of this gas in the same time as that in which
a bottle of carbon dioxide will lose 47 per cent. In
different gases the diffusive power is different, but in the
same gas it is the same.

The law is in many respects a very wonderful one.
Non-interference of a gas with other kinds of molecules,
while resisting the rising or descending among them of
additions of their own kind, is a very remarkable arrange-
ment. Were it otherwise, life could not be continued.
Deleterious gases would collect. Carbon dioxide breathed
out by all animals, were it not diffused through the air,
would fill rooms and all kinds of enclosures and places
where animals congregate, and would be the ending of
their life.

Avogadro's law. — Equal volumes of all substances, in
the state of a perfect gas, and under like conditions,
contain the same number of molecules. A jar of oxygen

ATOMS AND MOLECULES 27

contains, suppose, 30 cubic inches of gas. In each cubic
inch are 1023 molecules, and therefore altogether 30 x 1023.
A jar of hydrogen of the same size, and under the same
conditions, will also contain 30 x 1023. One of nitrogen,
chlorine, or any gas, will have the same number ; or the
same jar will contain just the same number of each. It
is the same number of molecules, not of atoms. The
number of the latter differs in the molecules, and there-
fore also in the jar. What determines the number?
There are the action of the molecules on each other, the
same heat energies and pressure of the atmosphere.
And though the molecules involved be so great in
number, the heat motions so multitudinous, and the
atmospheric pressure produced by so lofty an atmosphere,
so perfect are their constitution and action that they
everywhere and always, in the case of every gas, put the
same number of molecules into the same space. Were
the space increased to cubic yards or miles, they would
still be equal to the task. So perfect is the constitution
of molecules, and the action of all natural laws on them,
that they can put enormous numbers into the same
spaces, and always the same. If a shepherd had ten
thousand sheep, and wanted to put them in hundreds
into pens, each one having a measured space around it, in
which it might move freely, as have the molecules, he could
not accomplish such a task without careful counting and
measuring. And nature could not accomplish it without
the vastest amount of measuring going before. And so,
although it may be said that it is natural to gases to
obey these laws, we cannot but ask, Why is it natural ?
The simplest and most natural results that are, have
great meanings. They speak of order. They could not
be produced without it, without a great amount of it, and
of the finest kind. There cannot be a single law without

28 THE CREATION OF MATTER

measurings and sameness the most minute. There cannot
be gases contracting and expanding in the same measure
without all being in their essence constituted on the same
principle. The results could not be produced were the
volumes each a chaos.

m

CHEMICAL COMBINATION

Affinity — Its Adjustments for Action Exquisite — Universal-
Uniform — Manifold — Varying in Measures — Persistent — Stable
— Argument Independent of the Atomic Theory.

WE now come to consider the case of atoms in chemical
combination. This is one of the most interesting of the
fields of science. It is crammed with wonders. It is
crowded with adjustments. It is packed with adaptations.
It is pervaded by order. Throughout its length and
breadth the presence and action of mind are revealed.
Mind is everywhere in it, shining in ten thousand nice
adjustments, ten thousand thousand exquisite adaptations.
Chemical combination is to be distinguished from
mixture. Nitrogen and oxygen form a mixture in the
atmosphere. Hydrogen and oxygen may also be made to
mingle without entering into their most intimate union.
In chemical combination the atoms are not only mixed,
and in such a manner as to show only the qualities of a
mixture; under the influence of a peculiar force they
approach each other in a union so close as to create a new
substance, differing entirely in nature and qualities from
its constituents. A chemist familiar with every property
of the simple substances, able by his tests to detect them
in the smallest quantity, if a new substance were pre-
sented to him for examination, would not be able to form
a correct anticipation as to the elements which, by their

29

30 THE CREATION OF MATTER

combination, constituted it. Chlorine, a yellow gas of
suffocating properties, and sodium, a metal of white
colour, combine to give us common salt. Who would
imagine beforehand that water is composed of two light
gases. In every case of real and perfect combination
the qualities of the constituents are lost, and seem to be
even destroyed, so entirely have they disappeared. Even
when the same elements combine in different proportions,
the resultant compounds are as unlike as any others, and
are separated by a wide gulf.

The laws of chemical combination suggested to Dalton
the atomic theory of the constitution of matter, which
he propounded a century ago. He deduced it from the
laws of definite and multiple proportion. He found that
when one element enters into combination with another,
it is always in the ratio of 1 to 1, or 1 to 2, 1 to 3, 1 to 4,
or 2 to 3, to 5, to 7, etc. From this he concluded that
the elements consist of atoms which unite in definite and
fixed numbers to form compound molecules. This theory
has held the field for a century, and still holds it.
Modifications may await it in the future, but, as we shall
see, they can only be in the direction of order, and there-
fore not of a nature affecting our argument.

In chemical combination, when two or more different
kinds of atoms are brought together in appropriate cir-
cumstances, they close together, they form a new molecule,
revealing new qualities. And in the same circumstances,
the myriads of the atoms of the one combine with the
myriads of the atoms of the other. Between the two
kinds of atoms there exists a chemical attraction or
affinity which produces the results. For illustration, a
few examples may be presented. Hydrogen and oxygen
are gases consisting of atoms : mix them together and
introduce a burning taper ; an explosion takes place, and

CHEMICAL COMBINATION 31

water is formed. Two atoms of hydrogen have rushed
into union with one of oxygen, to yield a molecule of
water. The formula H20 is used to indicate this. In
hydrochloric acid (HC1) one atom of hydrogen combines
with one of chlorine, in ammonia (NH3) three atoms of
hydrogen unite with one of nitrogen.

The compounds of the same elements in different pro-
portions, as in N20, NO, N203, N20, N205, are substances
of entirely different properties.

When, then, an atom is examined, it is found to be
innnitesimally small, to be weighed, measured, and shaped
with inconceivable nicety. As far as it was concerned,
it might have stood alone in immensity. There might
not have been another existing ; but, lo ! another atom,
innnitesimally small also, and similar to it. Even these
two exquisitely cut gems, if we could perceive them,
would compel us to say, Here are clear marks of mind.
It is evident that the hand of intelligence has given to
these atoms their characteristics, and made them alike.
But when we find that there are not only two or three
alike, not only millions or centillions, but numbers for
which there is no name, the certainty that their likeness
is due to mind becomes overwhelming. But we find also
another kind of atom, different in every respect, and
multitudes like it, multitudes beyond all numbers, and
these in like manner proclaiming that their wondrous
order is due to a skilful hand ; and when two of these
atoms are brought together in appropriate circumstances,
they draw close to each other, they form a new molecule,
revealing new qualities. And in the same circumstances,
the myriads of the atoms of the one combine with the
myriads of the atoms of the other. But there are not
merely two, but nearly seventy kinds ; and all the atoms
of each and every kind are characterised by the force of

32 THE CREATION OF MATTER

affinity; and if we consider its action throughout the
whole field of matter, we shall see that the evidence of
the presence and action of mind in it is overwhelmingly
strong.

Chemical affinity shows an adjustment of the finest
kind, of nicety unapproachable. What the exact form
and nature of the atoms may be, in what way they unite
so intimately as not to be like a mixture, but to manifest
characteristics entirely new, it may be impossible accur-
ately and certainly to determine. But it is as impossible
to entertain the faintest doubt that they have a form and
nature very specially suited to their entering into the
glory of chemical union. Not every chance form and
nature would permit; irregularity even of figure would
prevent; even the figure must be exquisitely adapted.
And of still more exquisite perfection of adaptation must
be the force that unites, must be the characteristics which
mingle so matchlessly. The force must be minutely
adjusted, the qualities minutely adjusted. The least
deviation from exact correspondence in either would
render their combination impossible or irregular. But
throughout the whole chemical field no irregularity is
found. Is it not then a mark of mind, most clear and
finely impressed, that atoms have a form and nature
which fits them for an adjustment the finest, an adjust-
ment immeasurably finer than any devised by the genius
of man ?

Chemical affinity is a wonderful adjustment and char-
acteristic of matter. Simple mixture, though widely
useful, is nothing to it. How beautifully the atoms
act ! How splendidly they do their work ! What
cunning virtues they manifest ! What activities they
show ! What readiness for the exercise of their powers !
How perfect is their adaptation to what seems to the

UNIVERSITY I

CHEMICAL COMBINATION 33

reasonable mind to be their purpose ! How exactly, and
with what accuracy, they spring into their place, into the
many places they fill ! How gloriously perfect are their
unions ! How marvellous is the complete obliteration of
their old properties and the distinct presentation of the
new ! The old disappear without leaving a vestige ; the
new appear, pure, and untrammelled by anything that
belonged to the old. A great painter being asked with
what he mixed his colours, answered, " With brains, sir."
It was with hand guided by perceiving intelligence ; it
was a genius for colours that enabled him to produce
effects that were the admiration of beholders. With
what have the elements of matter been mixed after a
chemical manner — after a manner with which no mixing
of colours can vie 1 With mind ; with mind, that glows
in their action above the brightness of the sun; with
mind, that formed, that adapted, that charged them with
measured chemical force.

It is a universal characteristic of matter. Every atom
is distinguished by it. There is not a substance known
that is not constituted after a chemical manner, that has
not a relationship to some other, that does not enter into
combination with some other to form a new compound.
Even in the case of those that are rarest, the force of
affinity is so strong that there is the greatest difficulty in
separating them for examination. This amazing property
of matter, this finest of adjustments, that would have
filled us with admiration if it had existed on a small
scale in a little corner of nature, is in every corner, and
fills the universe. Every atom declares that it exists not
for itself alone, but for its neighbour, that the essentials
of its condition stand carefully adjusted for the most
beautiful and wonderful and perfect of unions. Every
atom in the vast field of matter is a gem carefully cut, is
3

34 THE CREATION OF MATTER

a work of consummate art, is in its nature and qualities
an ideal of adaptation, and proclaims with all the force
of everything that is in it and about it, that it owes its
existence to a hand of matchless wisdom. A few atoms
would speak with power, a jar of them with irresistible
force. Eut there are worlds of them. There are worlds
on worlds. And all speak loudly and clearly. Nowhere
is an uncertain sound heard. Not an atom hesitates in
its testimony, but ringing clear, as from golden mouth, as
with perfect articulation, and truth's own vigour, ascribes
the glory of its condition to an understanding mind.

The action of the atoms is uniform. They might
have differed in the temperature or circumstances of
their entering into union. But all the atoms of the same
element are so perfectly alike, have the measures and
characteristics of their force determined with an exact-
ness so exquisite, that their septillions and centillions act
at the same moment in the same circumstances. They are
as septillions of strings composed of the same substance,
made of the same thickness, cut to the same length,
drawn to the same tension, tuned to the same note.
They are as centillions of jars charged with the same
electrical force. All in contact with the same element
are thrown into activity at the same instant, at the same
point. They know it everyone ; they recognise it. Its
touch is magic. As with one accord, and perfect intelli-
gence, they spring into the right place, leap into union in
the right manner and number. They need no hand of
operator to guide, or set right the position of any one
of them. Within the same range of circumstances, too,
they continue in union, they cleave to each other, they
hide themselves individually, and show only their com-
bination qualities. And again at the same point or points,
they relax their grasp, start aside and become themselves

CHEMICAL COMBINATION 35

again. In short, in every possible variety of conditions
the affinities of the same elements are found to be in the
same line, to move at the same moment, to continue union
within the same range. How impressive is this uniform
action ! How marvellous is it that the force should in
every atom of the two or more elements entering into
combination, be so exactly measured, as that multitudes
so vast should be moved with the same simultaneousness,
that in every case the conditions of action stand exactly
at the same point, and that they combine one and all to
show the same perfection of likeness in the compound
molecules. Whence then agreement in action so perfect ?
To what can we ascribe uniformity so universal and
extensive ? Not surely to the multitudes of atoms them-
selves ; not to any thing or any ground of being in them ;
no, not to multitudes, but to one, to one mind, to
one conscious mind capable of producing agreement so
wonderful, of creating uniformity so matchless.

The atoms of each element have many chemical
affinities. Oxygen combines with almost all the others,
though there are some for which its affinity is weak.
Hydrogen enters into a great many unions. Carbon
forms a multitude of compounds which are of first import-
ance in the economy of nature. Chlorine combines with
all substances. Bromine unites with most metals at
ordinary temperatures. Iodine and fluorine have similar
affinities. Oxygen, in its nature, form, and force, is thus
adjusted with this exquisitely nice adjustment to more
than sixty different kinds of atoms, differing in nature,
form, and force from it and from each other. It might
have been adjusted to one and no second. Every addi-
tional adjustment is an added contingency. It is as if
it had been made, and in the making of it all the atoms
of all the elements were kept in view ; and as if they had

36 THE CREATION OF MATTER

been made, and in the making of them oxygen had been
taken into account. The same is true of chlorine. It is
as if in the making of it, union with the other elements
was provided for, and in the making of them they were
prepared for union with it. It is as if in the making of
each and every element others were considered. The
interaction among them is exceedingly extensive and
complicated. The number of affinities is very great ; it
is enormous. With manifold force, therefore, does every
individual atom of all the elements speak of itself as
formed by mind.

The intensity of the force differs between different
elements. A substance may have an attraction for two
others, but stronger for the one than for the other. That
of chlorine for oxygen is very feeble, but for hydrogen it
is very strong. Chlorine, iodine, bromine, fluorine com-
bine readily with metals, but the energy of the action is
in the order in which we have presented them. Sodium,
potassium, and three other metals have an exceedingly
powerful attraction for oxygen. So violent is it that
when a piece of them about the size of a pea is placed on
water, it bursts into flame. The metal, by simple contact
with the water, detaches the oxygen from the hydrogen,
and draws it with rapid and irresistible vigour into union
with itself. Sulphuric acid has an attraction for mag-
nesia and also for soda, but stronger for the latter than
for the former. The intensity of the force in each
element and compound is suited to the place they fill
and the purposes they serve. The attractions between
element and element, between element and compound,
between compound and compound, are set in an order
that cannot be improved, that commands an enthusiasm
of admiration. It is owing to this order that the opera-
tions in the laboratory of the chemist and the chemical

CHEMICAL COMBINATION 37

manufactory can be carried on, that the myriad opera-
tions and chemical changes in every department of
nature are in constant activity. The riches and com-
plexities of arrangement shown in this order proclaim
themselves with overwhelming power as due to mind.

Chemical affinity is a persistent force. The atoms never
lose it, nor the qualities which it brings into play. No
changes, however multitudinous, exhaust or diminish
it. Atoms unite with atoms, and in union seem to lose
their identity, seem to forget themselves and all that
they were. They merge themselves in each other.
There is not the slightest sign of the individual element.
And thus united they might have communicated their
properties to each other irremovably. Seeing they
mingle them so perfectly, it might have been that in
combination they would lose them to each other, and
so there would have arisen inextricable confusion. But
when a combination is broken up, each element carries
with it everything belonging to itself and its kind, and
nothing more. No atom gives out of itself an infinitesimal
portion of what is properly its own. On whatever its
characteristics may depend, it suffers no measure of any
of them to be separated from it. It retains for ever
unaffected in any way its every affinity. This is a con-
tingency found in each atom, found in all the atoms.

The compounds have various measures of stability.
In some it is weak ; in others it is strong. In the former
the range of conditions in which the union begins and
continues is narrow. In the latter it is exceedingly
wide. Phosphine PH3 prepared in one way and intro-
duced into air or oxygen at once takes fire. Chlorine
peroxide C102 at a temperature below the boiling point
of water explodes with great violence. There are
compounds which the least elevation of temperature,

38 THE CREATION OF MATTER

which the lightest blow, which a touch, can break up.
The great majority of substances have, however, a firm
stability. Amid countless possibilities, amid contin-
gencies without number, the condition in which their
constituents unite are easily available, and the range
of conditions in which they continue united is com-
paratively wide, so that they have the stability required
for the purposes they serve in the ordered world. At
the same time their stability is not too great. This
would prevent their being useful as effectively as if it
were too feeble. The stabilities are measured. They are
adjusted to the place and uses of each substance.

Matter then, in its very elements, is a field of the most
beautiful order. The atoms of each element are the same
in all their characteristics and measures. If it be affirmed
that matter is eternal, and therefore that it is not an
effect and does not require a cause, yet are we entitled
to demand an account of the samenesses, and likenesses,
and differences, and relationships that reign throughout
its borders. They cannot be ascribed to the atoms them-
selves. Nothing can act before it exists. If atoms be
supposed to be self -existent, they yet could not set their
nature in order. They did not take counsel together as
to what their various properties and measures of properties
should be. No atom understood itself, much less its
fellows, and therefore could not set itself in order, or
adjust itself to them. They cannot be ascribed to
necessity. There can be no eternal necessity, there can
be no eternal reason of any kind, why there should be
sixty or seventy or any definite number of elements, and
why such multitudes of the same element should in
so wonderful a manner be distinguished by the same
qualities and potencies in common. They cannot be
ascribed to chance. They are so extensive and wonder-

CHEMICAL COMBINATION 39

ful that it is as impossible for such an account of them
to cling to a sane mind, and sting it with doubt, as for a
wasp to live in the hottest flames of the sun. They can
only be ascribed to mind. Every atom has on it not
one but many marks of being artificially made, is a gem
flashing in every facet with the light of intelligence.

The size of the atoms is of course relative. Let us
magnify them to a clearly visible size and represent their
qualities by visible characteristics. Let the atoms be
likened to cubes and let the sides, coloured differently,
represent the various qualities. If then you were to
come upon a few such similar cubes, there would be no
hesitation in concluding that they had been made by an
intelligent hand. But if, side by side with them, you
met with others differing in size and shape and colours
from those of your first discovery, but exactly resembling
each other, you would feel that your conviction was, if
possible, strengthened. But if you found not two nor
three, but fifty, sixty, or seventy, cluster differing from
cluster, but all the atoms of each cluster the same, you
could not but feel the evidence for their being manu-
factured overwhelming. And this is what we find in the
universe. In it we have seventy different clusters of
snormous size. How vast a space would all the atoms
of oxygen in the worlds within view of man's aided eye
occupy ! Hydrogen and nitrogen and carbon would each
form a globe of immense magnitude. Each and every
element would also do so. If the eye could be aided to
see them clearly, and to perceive their form and various
properties, the mind could not resist the conviction that
they are made.

Stones and wood disposed so as to form a graceful,
convenient, and comfortable building, show the mind and
hand of an architect and builder. But the stones them-

40 THE CREATION OF MATTER

selves may as distinctly indicate that they too have come
from the same quarry, and that they have been shaped,
measured, and fitted for their place by the same or like
cunning hands. And the wood may make as clearly
manifest that it has been taken from the same kind of
trees, and also cut and planed for its place. And so the
worlds make manifest that they have been formed by an
Architect and Builder of transcendent wisdom and power.
And when we examine the material employed to form so
many structures, we find that they speak in unmistakable
tones of the skilful hand from which they have come, of
the designing mind which made them for their place.
They are as if for a building you were to find everything
fully prepared, the stones of requisite size and shape, and
ready to be placed on each other so that no seam could be
seen ; the wood also ready for the nail and hammer, and
even nail and hammer and all things necessary for the
raising up of a commodious structure. " Master, see what
stones and buildings are here ! " The buildings were
extensive and noble. The stones were huge, and created
astonishment and admiration. But see infinitely greater
wonders. See the stones and buildings of the universe.
Behold the earth ; lift up the eyes to the heavens. What
buildings are here ! How noble are these structures !
These are the buildings to be admired. These are the
structures to fill an enlarged imagination with a sense of
grandeur and magnificence for the ages of ages. See what
stones ! What stones for such structures ! They are not
huge blocks. The wonder of them does not lie in that
direction. It lies in their smallness, in the extreme
minuteness of their size. But see them ! Every stone is
a study. Every atom is a marvel. Every cluster is an
array of astounding marvels. Every stone is measured,
weighed, and shaped and ready for building, ready to

CHEMICAL COMBINATION 41

build itself, having a readiness to be seen nowhere
besides. These we say are the stones to be wondered at.
These form a sight to kindle the soul and make it bum
with everlasting admiration. Admiration of what? — of
the fruits of chance ? No ; of the fruits of mind, of its
glorious and inspiring triumphs.

Matter is thus, through and through, to its least atom,
and in its lightest characteristic, pervaded by order
exquisitely perfect. But it may be said that the atomic
theory is only a theory. It holds the field. Amid the
advances of a century it works well and fruitfully. But
it may be modified. But it cannot be modified save in
the direction of order. Our argument does not depend
on any mere theory. It depends on phenomena actually
observed, on facts placed among the certainties of science.
It depends on the measured qualities and forces, on the
order and adjustment which are undeniably characteristic
of matter in its elements. The atomic theory may be
modified in some respects, but it cannot be so modified as
to exclude the wealth of order revealed in the laws of
chemical action and combination. The new or modified
theory must include these, and reveal some more wonder-
ful explanation of them than that now given, or reveal
some special point at which new light as to the mode of
action breaks forth. But the new will only show more
perfect action than the old, will only be a more perfect
representation of the mode in which the work is done.
In short, no variation in theory can touch even with the
lightest finger the contention that matter from its cir-
cumference to its core, from its most complex com-
binations to its simplest elements, is pervaded by the
most perfect order, is therefore crammed with signs of
mind and is its work.

IV
LIGHT— THE ETHER IN" ITSELF

The Ether — A Medium differing from Ordinary Matter — Nature
of Wave Motions — Action in the Ether itself— Its Motions
Advance in Straight Lines — Velocity of Light, Great, Suit-
able, combining Maximum of Forward Velocity with Mini-
mum of Forward Force — Waves — Transverse Vibrations.

THE field of chemical science is crammed with beautiful
order and action. In it the elements of matter are seen
to possess characteristics so exactly measured, to show
adjustments to each other so exquisitely determined, to
present signs of mind so many and so brilliantly clear,
as to inspire the rapture of admiration, and lead with
irresistible force to the conviction that they have been
made by a mighty intelligence.

In light and the science of optics, we meet with the
same wealth and complexity of order, with the same, if
not greater, beauty and exquisiteness of action, with the
finest adjustments of a new and widely different element
to ordinary matter, — we meet with signs of mind transcend-
ing in brightness the shining of light itself.

More than two centuries ago, a Danish astronomer,
Olaus Rbmer, made the important and fruitful discovery
that light travels in time. It does not come from the
sun to the earth by instantaneous transmission. Its
velocity is finite, and can be measured ; and by his cal-
culation, 192,000 miles per second. Modern observers

42

LIGHT — THE ETHER IN ITSELF 43

and experimenters have measured it in a direct manner,
and fixed it at 186,000 miles.

Two theories have been advanced as to the manner in
which light is propagated. The first, the emission theory
of Newton, represented its rays as made up of infinitesi-
mally small particles emitted by shining bodies; these
sped forward as arrows from a bow, stones from a sling,
bullets from a rifle. The sun would on this theory be
continuously sending forth from his body innumerable
bright particles, which, reaching and entering the eye,
produce the sensation of light. This view, though long
maintained, has been discredited. Observed facts con-
tradict it. The second is called the undulatory or wave
theory. It regards light as flowing from the sun to the
earth by means of a medium thrown into a state of wave
agitation. These waves spread through the medium in all
directions, after the manner of those caused by a stone
flung into the water.

It has been found necessary to assume the existence of
a medium different from ordinary ponderable matter, to
which the name of ether has been given. Sound is
propagated through the particles of matter, and without
their presence and action no impression is made on the
ear. A bell hung in a vacuum cannot be made to give
forth sound. The necessary motions may be produced in
the metal by means of a hammer attached to clockwork ;
but these find no means of transmission outward, and
therefore are not transmitted, are not conveyed to the
ear. Light, on the other hand, passes through a vacuum
with the greatest facility. It finds in it, after the air has
been withdrawn, a medium of its own ready for perfect
action. It also passes through space, hastening to us
from the most distant stars, through regions where
atmospheres cannot be said to exist. There must, there-

44 THE CREATION OF MATTER

fore, be everywhere a special element which forms the
vehicle for carrying from point to point those energies or
motions which are light-giving. This element, this ether
as it has been called, does not make its own existence
known to any of the senses. We do not see, we do not
smell, we do not taste it. It emits no sound. In no
way, even in its most rapid light-giving motions, does it
affect the sense of touch. We do not perceive it by any
of the means through which we become acquainted with
the existence of the elements of the chemical world.
The evidence, however, for its existence and mode pf
action in producing light is irresistible. It is strengthened
and confirmed by such an element being necessary for
the explanation of the phenomena of heat and electricity.
As light reaches us from the most distant nebulae, a vast
ether sea must fill the whole of known space, and be
continuous and the same throughout all its borders.

The undulatory or wave theory may be illustrated by
what takes place when a stone is thrown into water.
The molecules struck are borne downward, and the level
is broken. The force of gravity comes into play, and
acts until the surface again becomes a horizontal plane.
Under its influence, the neighbouring molecules descend
to fill the depression caused by the stone. The next
molecules descend to fill their place, and the next move
in like manner. This goes on till those at the point first
depressed rise above their former level, and an elevation
is formed. This again descends, and an elevation appears
around it. Up and down the molecules rise and fall,
through shorter distances each time, till equilibrium and
a level is restored. Meantime the neighbouring molecules
have been moving up and down in the same manner,
and this movement has been propagated through the
water, and so waves have been made to circulate all

LIGHT — THE ETHER IN ITSELF 45

around. The appearance is as if the water were advancing,
as if it were rushing along the surface ; but there is no
such advance. A piece of wood floating on it simply rises
and falls in its place, and shows very little motion forward,
as it would do if there were a real onrushing of the water.
When a molecule has ascended above, and descended to
the point from which it started, when it has thus made
a complete vibration, it has around it a complete wave,
consisting of a crest and a depression. The wave it is,
and not the water, that spreads and runs in every direction.

There is the upward and downward motion of the
molecules, and the forward advance of that motion.
Wave motion may also be illustrated by a rope fastened
at one end and drawn sharply up and down at the other.
In such a case it is easily seen that it is the wave motion,
not the first part acted on, that runs along. According
to the undulatory theory, light is propagated in this
manner. Wave motions in the ether are created by the
sun or other luminous body, are borne along through the
former, and advance with extraordinary velocity, till
they reach the pupil of the eye, pass through, strike
the retina, run along the nerves to the brain, and on the
perceiving nature associated with it produce the impres-
sion of light. The motions producing the impression are
the transverse, or to-and-fro, up-and-down vibrations.

The exact constitution of the ether, whether it consist
of minute particles or not, science has not certainly
determined. We can therefore only speak of portions
of it, and affirm that its action at points innumerable and
infinitesimally small can be separated in thought, and
spoken of very much in the same manner as if there were
separate and independent particles. "A finite time is
required to generate in a finite portion of it, a finite
velocity, by means of a finite force." It is therefore

46 THE CREATION OF MATTER

characterised by inertia, or resistance to force. Its inertia
is, however, as feebleness itself. It is moved with un-
paralleled ease. To form waves, a change must also be
produced in its parts ; a strain must be caused of such a
nature as to have in it a tendency to return to its natural
relationships. It must therefore have elasticity. There
are phenomena which show that its elasticity is of a
peculiar nature, differing entirely from that of water, or
of air, in the production of sound. We propose to show
that its various forms of action are such as to manifest
that, whatever may be its exact constitution, it is the
work of mind. Its adjustments to material molecules
also reveal the wealth of order that is in them. We
shall consider it — I. In its action within itself ; II. In its
relations to material molecules.

I. Its action within itself. — (1) Light travels in straight
lines. — The waves flow outward in all directions from
any centre of disturbance, but each wave holds on its
course, turning neither to the right hand nor to the
left. There is no deviation of a single ray. All the rays
that proceed from the sun, that are reflected by the
moon, that come from the stars of heaven, run straight to
their goal. In a vacuum, within any the same medium,
the central points of a wave draw a line of inconceivable
fineness and straightness. Every ray that comes from
the sun draws such a line about 92,000,000 miles in
length. And such lines are numerous as the rays of
light in the universe. The first part struck in a line
sends forward the force it has received to the next, and
the next to the next, and onward, ever onward, from
part to part, onward, ever straight onward, the right
point in front always receiving the advancing energy.
The least deviation near the sun would mean, at the end
of millions of miles, an immense distance from the

LIGHT— THE ETHER IN ITSELF 47

straight course. A single disorderly point in a line
would cause disorder. Were there several, the ray might
be stopped, or turned far aside, or even back to the point
whence it came. But nowhere is disorder found. How
much this tells us of the ether, of the perfection of its
sameness in sensibility to force, in elasticity, in exactness
and accuracy of operation, in adaptation for work of
nicety indescribable. A variation the smallest would
have told. The minutest difference would have caused
deviation. But there is no deviation, no turning aside.
Every line is a wonder. It is said that a great artist,
calling on a brother of the craft and not finding him
within, drew a line which at once made known to his
friend, on his return, the personality of his visitor. It
was such a line as only one hand could draw. It had
that in it which belonged to one hand alone. And lines
of light have in them distinction incomparably higher,
and must belong to a mind incomparably greater. It is
comparatively easy to hit a mark near at hand. It
is much more difficult to do so afar off. Who has not
read with admiration of an archer cleaving a willow wand,
of a rifleman from a distance many times piercing a
centre. Clear must be the eye, steady the nerve, early
and long the training, firm the will, and strong the
directive power, that rise to the achievement of the
greatest triumphs. The beams of light that fall on
a flower of the field are, as if they were arrows from a
bow, pellets from a rifle, aimed from the sun, aimed
straight at that flower. This is cleaving the wand at
the distance of many millions of miles ; this is piercing
the centre unparalleled. Never was aiming like unto it.
Drawing of straight lines like these is far above the
power of man. A hand of indefinite length, a hand guided
by mind, possessing perceptive power, clear and minute

48 THE CREATION OF MATTER

in fineness as the ether itself, and swift with its swiftness,
might draw such lines ; but that an ether sea should be
so constituted, that all its parts should correspond so
perfectly, as that it in its action should everywhere draw
them, excites the very enthusiasm of admiration, the very
ecstasy of wonder.

This law is of vital importance. Were rays not to
proceed with perfect regularity in lines perfectly straight,
were there disorder in the ether such as would intercept
or bend them largely, the vision of things would be a
scene of confusion. A thin pane of glass irregular with
an irregularity not observable on looking at itself, is yet
sufficient to mix up the objects in a prospect, to displace
houses and stacks and trees and portions of grass fields
and heath, and show the one where the other ought to be.
Were the ether imperfect in places, the same minglings
might result both on earth and the face of the sky. But
of such minglings there are none. Every view is shown
to us by lines of light of inexpressible straightness. And
if it be said that there may be bending infinitesimally
small, that bending must be the same in all. How much
this tells of the ether ! How is it glorified through all
its extent, an extent not like a thin pane of glass, but
reaching unto outermost existences ! How resplendent
are its samenesses in all even its minutest parts ! How
does every part and all parts, how do lines so multitudin-
ous, so extended, and each one so perfect, speak ! How
loudly ! How clearly ! How they mean ! With what
brilliancy, with what overmastering intensity. To the
very deaf how can they be silences ? To the unintelligent-
how can they be meaningless ?

"A primrose by the river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more."

LIGHT— THE ETHER IN ITSELF 49

But where can the leaden dulness be found, to which
lines of light are lines of light and nothing more, suggest-
ing nothing, revealing nothing, inspiring no deep ponder-
ings, compelling no questions, rendering no answers ? To
the lips of every one there must surely spring the question,
Does such an entity exist by chance ? And is not the
answer easy 1 Is it not a mighty triumph of mind ? Does
not every line, do not all the lines, carry in them irresist-
ible evidence that the ether so ordered is the work of
understanding ; that so vast a sea, acting at every point
with a perfection which baffles the imagination to realise,
has its form and constitution as the fruit of the operation
of an intelligence glorious as the glory of those fruits ?

(2) TJie velocity of light. — The velocity with which
light travels is nearly a million times greater than in the
case of sound. It descends from the sun to the earth in
about eight minutes and a half. In one minute it makes
11,160,000 miles; in a second 186,000. In a second it
would circle round the earth more than seven times.
Observations have been carefully taken, and in a vacuum
and in air no difference can be detected in the velocity of
light of any colour. There is, however, a difference in
their velocity, passing through water and other trans-
parent substances.

The velocity with which light travels shows the extra-
ordinary sensibility and perfection of the ether. In the
journey of a single line of light from the sun to the
earth, how much of it is moved in a second, how much in
a minute, how much in its whole course! And every
part at every point is distinguished by the same readiness
to be moved and to move. Every part is distinguished
by an elasticity many hundreds of times greater than is
found in steel. Every point is characterised by exactly
the same measure of elasticity. Nowhere is there hin-
4

50 THE CREATION OF MATTER

drance, obstruction, or retardation ; nowhere the semblance
of irregularity, the least touch of disorder. Every part is
equally suited for the work assigned. And thus the pro-
gress of a single ray affords abundant evidence of the
presence of mind. And every ray bears the same testi-
mony. Every ray that comes from the sun proclaims the
order which it finds in this wondrous sea. And every
ray that comes from the most distant star declares that
at every point in its travels it has found a welcome, it
has been sent forward and received a God-speed, and no
let nor hindrance in any the most insignificant measure.
This glorious medium forms one mighty sea, one magnifi-
cent machine. Behold, cry all parts of it from earth and
heaven, behold our unity. We are extended through
spaces vast and beyond all measures. But behold how
we act together, respond to, and are true to each other
throughout all our borders. There is not an indolent,
there is not an inefficient, there is not a disorderly part
among us. We are everywhere perfect, everywhere
efficient, everywhere ready for action, always ready.
And where is there action like ours ? Where can motions
be found rapid and beautiful as those which we are ever
executing 1 And we made not ourselves. We determined
not our own nature. We measured not our sensibility
and elasticity. We created not the perfection of our
harmonies. We are the children of mind. We are the
work of understanding.

The suitableness of the velocity of light is remarkable.
In a minute it travels more than 11,000,000 miles. In
the same time sound does not travel thirteen. Had light
been conveyed at the same rate as sound it would have
taken a day to advance 18,687 miles, and would have
been nearly ten days in passing over the same distance as
it now covers in a second. It would have needed more

LIGHT— THE ETHER IN ITSELF 51

than thirteen years to come from the sun. Such a
velocity would have had no suitability in it. Ten times,
a hundred times, a hundred thousand times, that velocity
would have had none. But it is nearly a million times
greater and most suitable. It is transcendently great,
and of that greatness which its usefulness in an ordered
kosmos demands, of that greatness which the distance it
has to travel requires. Its velocity is determined for the
work it has to do. The velocity of sound is suitable for
it, and that of the advance of the waves of light is suit-
able for them. It is measured and adjusted and set at a
point where it proves an invaluable factor in the arrange-
ments of a universe. And this measure of the velocity
depends on the constitution of the ether. Its essential
nature has therefore been fixed by mind, so that its
motions might advance with the remarkable and fitting
rapidity which characterises them.

Velocity of advance by waves is a wonderful design both
for light and sound. Notwithstanding their smallness,
the molecules of air when set in motion in a hurricane at
the rate of a hundred miles an hour, sweep on with a
force that causes great destruction. If Newton's emission
theory of light had been true, what must have been the
nature of the particles emitted, which, having an onrush
not of a hundred, but of hundreds of millions of miles an
hour, would yet beat on all things, and not exercise any
force that can be felt, but be gentler than the gentlest
zephyr? Such particles, if material at all, even if im-
measurably smaller than the smallest molecules, proceeding
at so enormous a rate, and being in numbers so vast,
might have been expected to blow worlds before them.
And without mind at the helm, there might as well have
been such a roar and rush of particles as the state of
things which now exists, rendering calms impossible, and

52 THE CREATION OF MATTER

making all nature a whirlwind of whirlwinds, to which
the mightiest hurricane even of a thousand miles an hour
would have been hut a light "breeze. But whatever may
be the constitution of the ether, in the advance of wave
motion, no perceivable force is exerted. Air wave motions,
generated by lightning, strike the ear as loudest thunder,
but not as gentlest wind. And so light and colour and
sound are conveyed in such a way as to be themselves
perfected, are conveyed with a velocity transcendently
great, and yet do no harm, are conveyed with the wisdom
of the serpent and harmlessness of the dove. They are a
divine solution of the problem, how to obtain the maximum
of forward velocity with the minimum of forward force.

The waves. — The order which reigns is still further
illustrated when we consider the waves. They are
measured; they are of different lengths, yielding the
seven colours. The waves of the same colour are of
the same length. The ether is so perfect in its action
that under the influence of the energies beating on it,
it forms throughout the waves of red of their special
length, and of each colour of its special length. In every
line of light stretching from the sun to the earth or
coming from the most distant star, the number of waves
is proportional to the distance traversed. In numbers so
vast this is surely a most impressive fact.

The wave lengths are so accurately measured that it
has been proposed to adopt those of one colour as afford-
ing a perfect standard of measure. Nothing is more
difficult to obtain than such a standard, one that shall be
exact, and continue the same for all generations. Science
has been called into play for the devising of it, and the
French determine the length of their metre from the
dimensions of the earth ; the British our yard from
the second's pendulum. Both these, however, would be

LIGHT — THE ETHER IN ITSELF 53

affected in the course of ages. But nothing affects, or
ever can affect, the length of a wave of any colour of
light. Nothing can ever increase or dimmish the line
occupied by any definite number. They have been
measured, and their length can always be so exquisitely
determined as to render them a practical and perfect
standard of length. They would suffice for all lands.
A scientist in Britain, France, China, and Australia, in
Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune, or any planet revolving
round any sun in the universe, would be able to make
a yard or metre, differing no not by a hair's-breadth. So
exquisitely is the ether made throughout all its borders.

Let a sphere be drawn round the sun at any distance.
Count in every line of any colour of light a million
billion waves, and the points where the numbers are
completed would form a sphere as perfect as the first.
Let there be two spheres and a million miles between.
In every line of that length, of a million miles, there
would be in the same colour the same number of waves.
We cannot of course prove this by experiment, but
experiment leads us to the conviction that it is true,
and this mode of representation enables us to realise
that the measuring of the waves is immeasurable in
amount and inconceivable in accuracy, shows a splendour
of order inexpressible. We can go a great length, and
so as to see that they are formed by a hand, oh, how
perfect ! a hand that loves absolute perfection, aims at it
and is able to secure it, and that if in any line of any
length there is one more than belongs to that length,
there is a reason for it. Yes, there is a reason for
everything in the works of the mind that made the
universe. Are there perturbations in Uranus, then,
reasoned the astronomer, there must be another planet
beyond, and by them that planet was placed and found

54 THE CREATION OF MATTER

in its place. Is there, may we not say, one more wave
in any length, of line in space more than in the same
length of all others, then is there a reason for it. The
multitude therefore of the waves and the exactness of the
measuring can have but one glorious meaning.

The transverse vibrations to which light is due have
also been numbered. The ether vibrates 395 billions of
times in a second in producing red light, 509 billions in
creating the impression of yellow, and 763 billions that of
violet. These numbers are enormous, widely separated,
and comparatively definite. In a single ray, stretching
from the sun to the earth, how multitudinous are the
vibrations, how enormous the number in those that fall
on a field, on a great plain, on half the earth, that
proceed from the sun in every direction, that are in the
vast ocean that stretches from sun to sun, from system to
system, from nebula to nebula. And at every point the
action of the ether is exquisitely perfect. Can anything
be imagined more impressive than so vast a unity and
uniformity of action, any fact of mightier significance?
Is not orderly working so extended, so transcendent in
fineness, an overwhelming wonder? So great a multi-
tude of points, acting so exactly alike, vibrating with a
velocity so extraordinary, and yet so perfectly measured,
fill the universe with the sound of one unmistakable
testimony to the source from which the ether has come,
to the Intelligence by which it has been made.

Lines of light, by the action of their waves, and trans-
verse vibrations, do the finest work. They show the
most charming colours which exist, the finest forms that
are. The greatest artist that ever with brains drew his
lines or mixed his colours, that produced masterpieces
admired of all the world, could have done nothing but
for the perfection of their action. Because of it he was

LIGHT — THE ETHER IN ITSELF 55

enabled to perceive clearly what he himself was pro-
ducing, and because of it beholders could behold, and
be lost in wonder and admiration. Let the man of
genius do his best, let him attempt the greatest things,
striving with all the power that is in him to idealise and
to realise his ideals, he will find in the waves of light
assistants and co-workers that respond to his conceptions,
that enable him to see and paint, and that make visible to
the kindred eye the supremest beauty that he can place
on canvas. Yea, he is not altogether worthy of them.
They can do better work than any which his genius
require at their hand. Who can paint like nature?
There are forms which no artist can limn; there are
colours which no genius can match ; there are faces and
expressions and beamings which no human hand can
represent, but there are none to which the waves of
light cannot do justice, none which they cannot convey
to all who can see. There is no fineness of work to
which they are not equal, for which they are not
sufficient. Let any beauty be found in nature, in garden
and landscape, in enlarged and grandest view, in sun-
risings and sunsettings, in graceful form and glowing
face and beaming eye, the ether waves and vibrations
will convey it, and present it to the onlooker with all
its charms.

LIGHT— THE ETHER IN ITS RELATIONS TO
MATERIAL MOLECULES

Sources of Light — Reflection — Refraction — Scattering — Absorption
— How Colours are produced — The Ether made for the Illu-
mination of the Universe — The Finest Test of Order in the
Atoms and Molecules — Does the Finest Work.

II. THE ether in its relations to material atoms now falls
to be considered. Aggregates and combinations of matter
form the ordinary sources of light. In such a source
there are two parts, and two modes of operation. Chemi-
cal action produces heat motions in the ether. These
encountering solid matter are changed into motions that
are light-giving. To obtain a lamp, it is not sufficient
to raise heat of proper intensity. Another contingency
enters.

Both requirements may be illustrated by what happens
in lighting a petroleum lamp. When first ignited its
flame is dull, and much smoke is given forth, much
carbon, not finding oxygen atoms with which to enter
into combination, escapes. The glass chimney causes a
draught. Oxygen is thus supplied in larger measure,
more of the carbon combines with it, the temperature is
raised, and, what is as important, a sufficient supply of
solid carbon remains in the flame to cause luminosity.
To produce the motions that are light-giving, there must
not only be atoms and molecules acting with burning

56

RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 57

energy, but also a sufficient number unconsumed. There
must be carbon entering into combination and raising a
high temperature, and there must be carbon not entering
into combination, and the action of both produces light
of proper intensity. Magnesia or lime, being infusible
and incombustible, placed in a flame of intense heat,
gives forth a brilliant light. The most dazzling illu-
minant that can be produced is that of electricity passing
between carbon points.

A lamp, we say, or sun, is an instrument of two divi-
sions and two modes of action. In the one, chemical
action creates heat motions in the ether. Against the
other, which to it is as a stone wall, these heat motions
dash, and spring back not broken and destroyed, but
glorified and glowing with illuminating power. But for
the existence of matter capable of chemical action, but
for its adjustment to the ether in two different ways, it
would, in the vastness of its extent, in the beauty and
perfection of its order, and in its adaptation for work of
extraordinary usefulness and fineness, have existed in
vain. That it has being, and that atoms also exist, of
such a nature, and so adjusted to it, and in such multi-
tudes as to bring it into glorious play throughout the
most extended regions, cannot be by chance, but must be
due to mind.

If we venture to look toward the sun, or fix our eyes
on a lamp, rays of light come to us in a direct line. We
see them beaming; they dazzle us by their brightness.
Other beams reveal themselves only when they strike
solid objects. Kays passing into a room show their
splendour on floor or wall, and also mark their course by
lighting up the dust they encounter. Were they to show
their lustre in passing through the air ; were their rela-
tions to the oxygen and nitrogen of the atmosphere such

58 THE CREATION OF MATTER

as to colour them as they do many gases, or to light
them up as the dust in a room; were they to fill the
spaces through which they pass with brilliancy, we would
find ourselves in the midst of a sea of light which no eye
as at present constituted could bear, and which would
obstruct the dimmer rays coming from material objects
around us, and hinder them from being seen. We would
see nothing in such a case but lustre; lustre, lustre
everywhere, and not a thing to see. But how perfect is
their real action ! How admirable is the adjustment that
they should not show themselves directly, or reveal the
molecules of the atmosphere ! Their activities are not
of themselves. They cannot generate their own action.
For this they are dependent on molecular forces and
motions of two different kinds. And their existence is
not for themselves, that they may be seen, but for matter,
that it may be seen. Light is not that which is manifest,
but that which makes manifest. Without solid matter
to reveal, even the light is darkness. Is such an adapta-
tion the work of chance ? Has a medium without mean-
ing or use in itself, a medium characterised by matchless
perfection of action, and filling a vast immensity of
space — has such a medium happened to exist, and in a
condition exquisitely fitted to minister to other entities
and be an instrument by which they might be glorified
and their glory revealed, in a condition in which every-
thing that would hinder their usefulness is guarded
against? Is it as if an immeasurable intensity of
thought and minuteness of care had been bestowed on
every part of it to adapt it for the finest and most won-
derful work, and yet is all the result of chance? Im-
possible, absolutely impossible, is such a solution.

When rays of light fall on material objects, they are
either reflected or refracted, scattered or absorbed. The

RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 59

mode in which they are affected has been illustrated by
the action of elastic balls. If a number of them be
arranged in a line, if they be of the same size, and the
first be struck, it would give up its whole tendency to
motion to the next, and would itself come to rest. The
second would act in the same manner, as would also the
third and the fourth and the fifth, and all in the series.
But if two series be placed in a line, the one heavier
than the other, and the first of the lighter be struck, the
action would be the same as before until the impulse
reached the first of the heavier balls, when it would
encounter a stronger force of resistance than before, and
so, while giving up its whole motion forward, the lighter
series would receive an impulse and motion backward.
In some such way are rays of light affected, and the
energies in the ether made to pass on wholly or in
part, to divide and bend according to the resistance
encountered.

Regular reflection. — Light falling on a mirror, as of
water, mercury, or any polished surface, does not wholly
enter it, but is partly bent back in a new direction, or
reflected regularly, and partly reflected diffusely, or
scattered. The angle, which the line of the reflection
of a ray makes with the perpendicular to the surface of
a mirror at the point of incidence, is termed the angle of
incidence. That which the reflected ray makes with the
same perpendicular is termed the angle of reflection.
These angles are always in the same plane, and are equal.
They can be measured by an instrument, the graduation
of which is as perfect as it can be made, and there cannot
be discovered the least turning aside from the plane of
incidence ; there cannot be discovered the least fraction of
a degree of difference in the magnitude of the angles.
In passing from point to point, from any point in the

60 THE CREATION OF MATTER

line of incidence to any point in the line of reflection, a
beam of light chooses the shortest course, follows the
path in which it will make the journey in the shortest
time. The waves of a ray of light dart on a mirror,
strike it and rebound, imparting the larger portion of
their reflected motion to the ether lying in a line drawn
in the plane of incidence, and making with the perpendi-
cular an angle equal to the angle of incidence. On the
parts near the mirror everything depends, and never do
they fail, never do they act disorderly. They are always
true to their kind. They know in what direction to
forward the energy they receive, and initiate a new wave
in the right plane at the right angle. There is not a
point of the ether that would hesitate for the infini-
tesimal fraction of a second, that would not with the same
quickness make the same choice. Such perfection of
action is too wonderful for us, too clear in its meaning to
leave room for mistake. It makes evident the perfection
of the sameness of the ether throughout all its borders.

Refraction. — When light falls on a transparent sub-
stance, a portion enters and passes through. It takes,
however, a new direction, and is bent or refracted towards
the perpendicular. The size of the angle of incidence
bears to that of refraction a constant ratio. For the same
substance it is always the same. For different substances
it is different. Its velocity is also affected, but always in
the same measure in the same substance, and in different
measures in different substances. In the midst of aggre-
gated molecules the ether cannot vibrate with the same
ease as in a vacuum. It is hindered. The direction of
its rays is changed; the velocity is diminished. The
molecules take away from the energy and bend the action
into a new line. But all the molecules of the same
substance act on it in the same manner and measure.

RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 61

The ratio of refraction for various transparent substances
when the light passes through them is as follows: — Water,
1-333; alcohol, 1'365; brown glass, 1-530; diamond,
2-487; air, 1-000273; nitrogen, 1-000300; chlorine,
1-000772. The order which pervades all substances is
thus put to a test of extraordinary delicacy. The relation-
ships of molecules of water to the ether are so exquisitely
adjusted that the effect of the former on the latter is
uniform. The similarity of molecules of water, the regu-
larity that pervades them, could not be more finely tested,
more clearly and triumphantly held forth to view than
by their thus exerting the same influence on an entity
of sensibility so high. The sameness of that sensibility
is also made clearly evident. The characteristics of both
forms of being are determined with a minuteness of
likeness so inexpressibly perfect that the effects which
pass from one to the other are constants, that show not
an infinitesimal smallness of variation. Intelligence has
left its impress on every molecule of transparent matter,
on every part of the ether.

Refraction of different colours. — A ray of white light
is not simple. It is the advance, not of a single wave,
but of seven, giving the red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
indigo, and violet hues of the spectrum and rainbow.
Each ray and colour has a different refractive index,
and so when white light is passed through a prism they
are bent in a different measure towards the perpendicular,
and are separated. This is beautifully shown, not only
by the spectrum, but with homogeneous light. Lithium,
sodium, thallium, indium yield for the most part
homogeneous colours, — lithium red, sodium yellow,
thallium a splendid green, and indium blue. When the
light of their flame is passed through a prism it is
deflected, the yellow of sodium more than the red of

62 THE CREATION OF MATTER

lithium, the green of thallium more than the yellow of
sodium, and the blue of indium more than the green of
thallium. If the four metals be mixed in the flame, no
definite tint is produced. The colour is indeed almost
white. But pass this light through a prism, and again
each colour appears in its purity and beauty and in its
own relative place — red, yellow, green, and blue. The
colours differ in the length of the waves and in the
number of the transverse vibrations. The ether occupy-
ing the space among the molecules passes on every kind
of wave, transmits the seven different colours. The
molecules and ether are, however, so adjusted to each
other that the action of the former on the latter bends
each colour more and more. Each wave has its own
length and number of vibrations, and its own suscepti-
bility to the action of the molecules, has its own measure
in which it is bent towards the perpendicular. Each
wave of the same kind, anywhere and everywhere, pass-
ing through the same substance, is always deflected in
the same measure. The substance of the prism, consist-
ing of ordered matter, tests and exhibits the action of the
ether in seven different kinds of ways, and bears a
sevenfold testimony to it as produced by mind. What-
soever differences of action they may show are all found
to be in harmony with law and order. But were not the
molecules and the ether perfectly ordered they could not
exhibit order in their action. Were they not made
according to one exact and adjusted pattern they could
not obey one perfect law.

Diffuse reflection or scattering, and absorption. —
Non-luminous bodies can only be seen by light falling on
them from those that are luminous. Rays striking any
point are partly stopped and partly spring from it, and
fly to every quarter far and near. By these latter

RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 63

the moon and planets and all visible objects are seen.
Looking at a lamp or the sun reflected in a mirror
or in water, the part of the mirror or water where we
see the waves reflected regularly can hardly be seen
because of the largeness of the portion so reflected, and
the comparative smallness of the amount scattered.
General objects are easily seen, because the light which
shines on them is largely scattered.

The colour of the rays scattered is determined by the
power which substances possess of absorbing some and
dispersing others. Were all the rays which fall on the
objects of nature scattered, they would be of one universal
whiteness. But in different substances there is the
power of absorbing certain rays and scattering the rest.
This absorbing power is brought clearly into view by
transmitting the colours of the spectrum through trans-
parent substances, when it is found that each has colours
which it allows to pass, and others which it arrests and
absorbs. Nitrous acid gas allows the red end of the
spectrum to pass, but stops the rays towards the violet
end. It is thus shown to absorb the latter and scatter
the former, and therefore it is of an orange red colour.
When the vapour of iodine is treated in the same way,
the orange, yellow, and green rays are arrested, and only
the red, blue, and violet are transmitted. The latter
only can therefore be dispersed and form the lovely tint
of that vapour. Permanganate of potash arrests the
yellow and green, and its reddish-violet colour results
from the mingling of the others. Potassium bichromate
absorbs one part of the spectrum, ammoniated oxide of
copper the other, and light passing through both is com-
pletely taken up, and so the second is black. If a
spectrum be thrown on red paper instead of white, the
yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet are absorbed,

64 THE CREATION OF MATTER

whilst the red and orange are almost as bright as on the
white. If yellow, green, or blue be employed it will be
found that each disperses its own hue and absorbs the
others. White paper shows all the colours of the
spectrum, because it scatters all. Black is black because
all the colours are absorbed. No part of the spectrum
can be seen on it. A colour is destroyed when it is
wanting in the light shining. The yellow flame of
sodium does not contain the red rays, and therefore
when beams from it are thrown on red paper, all the
rays of yellow are absorbed, and there are no red rays to
scatter, and therefore the paper is black. Were the sun
a glowing globe of sodium yielding only yellow light, no
variegated beauty would deck the earth, no lovely flowers
would adorn the gardens and fields; its hills would
know no rosy light, no purple heath, its fields no mantle
of living green. All things would be yellow or black.
Those would be yellow which scatter the yellow, and
those black which absorb it. Sunlight is made up of
all the colours of the spectrum. The substances burning
in the great orb of day create every variety of wave.
The light of gas and candles also contains all, but not
the same proportion of each colour. The yellow is more
abundant than in solar light, the blue and violet less
abundant. It is for this reason that it is difficult to
distinguish blue and green in candle-light, because green
materials contain blue rays and blue materials green
rays ; and when the blue rays are diminished in numbers,
as they are in candle-light, there is not the same clear-
ness of distinction.

Three conditions are therefore necessary to the produc-
tion of any colour. First, that its waves should be found
in the illuminating light ; second, that the substance on
which the light falls should be capable of absorbing the

RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 65

other colours in it ; and thirdly, of dispersing that colour.
In plants there is a substance called chlorophyl, which has
the power of absorbing part of the red and most of the
violet rays, leaving the extreme red, orange, yellow, and
green in considerable brilliancy. Their green colour is
not therefore simple but compound.

The causes of absorption and scattering of colour are
very wonderful and very beautiful. The atoms of
different substances have their motions and capacities
for motion, and those waves are absorbed which fall on
them, and are in such relationship to them that they
can take up their motions, while those are scattered
whose motions they cannot take up. It is as when taps
are timed to the period of the swing of a pendulum, and,
being so timed, increase the oscillation, but not being so
timed the object tapping is sent out. Here then is a
magnificent and minute adjustment between the atoms
of matter and the ether. The capacity for motion of the
one is in its various measures arranged with reference to
the other. There is not an atom of matter, there is not a
point in the ether, that is not thus adjusted. As far as
the ether is concerned, and if chance only had been in
the field, there might not have been one atom of matter
having motions such as to absorb a single kind of wave,
and the motions of the ether might have been such that
no absorption would have been possible, and, in such a
case, the variety of waves would have been valueless, the
earth would have lacked the colours and tints that make
up its beauty, and would have been of one hue. But the
amount of adjustment for absorption is enormous, and
enables the earth to be clothed with loveliness of endless
variety. The molecules in grass, which give to it its
green colour, have their motions so arranged that they
can receive and swallow up so many motions of rays
5

66 THE CREATION OF MATTER

falling on them, as to reflect irregularly a glowing green.
The heath of the mountains has in its lovely bells mole-
cules which take up so many kinds of motions of the
waving ether and reject others, as to be able to clothe
the hills with purple. The flowers of the garden and the
field have their atoms so ordered as to give forth all
the colours of the rainbow. The same flowers glow and
beam with several hues.

The scattering of rays is all-important in the economy
of nature. It is by it that objects are seen. Of the
beams of light falling on a blade of grass, those which
the atoms cannot take up are sent out in every direction
in which a straight line can be drawn from the surface.
The last points of the ether strike against the constituent
molecules in the grass and flowers, and give up those
energies which these can receive, and recoil with those
which they cannot receive, and generating motions of the
same kind in every finest line that proceedeth from them
in any direction. How inexpressible is the delicacy of the
work thus performed ! How great is the amount of it !

No great and extensive work can be accomplished
by haphazard means. To obtain a powerful machine, a
mighty engine, requires long, deep, and earnest thought.
The most important machines of modern times have not
been perfected at a stroke. They have been at first
clumsy and complicated. They have worked awkwardly,
and have needed many arrangements and corrections to
render them serviceable. The perfection of an instru-
ment lies in simplicity, in adaptation for work, in power
of smooth and effective action. It is when great prin-
ciples are brought into play, when mechanism in har-
mony with them is constructed, that an end sought is
best reached, that an object aimed at is most successfully
accomplished. It is also true that no great work can be

RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 67

done, no powerful mechanism can be devised, unless
there be great laws and principles, and the most beautiful
and ordered relations, in the substances with which it is
necessary to work. Mind cannot set in order that which
is not susceptible of order, cannot adapt that whose own
fundamental nature does not render it adaptable.

The illumination of the universe is a vast and mar-
vellous work. It is accomplished with ideal perfection.
Nowhere is there a flaw, an imperfection, or a hitch. It
is done with charming simplicity, with magnificent ease
and smoothness of working. It is indescribably great.
An ether element fills all known space. The sun of our
system, and suns in billions, form centres of force, which
act upon it, and create light-giving waves. These travel
with a velocity of 11,000,000 miles in a minute. They
advance in straight lines, so that there is no straightness
like theirs. Each point of the ether vibrates transversely
hundreds of billions of times in a second. Each coloui
has its own special number of hundreds of billions. The
number of beams striking a surface small as a leaf cannot
be told. The number beating on half the globe is enor-
mously beyond every form of expression. Yet even they
are few compared with the multitude sent forth from the
sun. And every sun of the multitude existing is doing
the same work. And at every point the great ether sea
plays its part with a faithfulness unsurpassable.

And when the rays of our sun reach the earth, they
do not spend their strength in revealing themselves, they
do not make the molecules of the atmosphere to glisten
or glow with colour ; they make manifest the matter of
the earth. They are in many ways adjusted to its mole-
cules, so as. to be reflected, refracted, scattered, and
absorbed. The various elements and combinations are
differently adjusted for the ether action, so that by most

68 THE CREATION OF MATTER

substances a portion of the rays is scattered, and a portion
absorbed, and the scattered rays are enabled not only to
make manifest all objects, but to reveal the variety which
distinguishes them. Thus is the earth flooded with light,
bathed in splendour, decked with loveliness. Every form
of matter of sufficient density affects the rays which fall
on it, and sends them from it with its own message,
compels them to speak of it, and show its characteristics
to the eye of every beholder. With what perfection is
this accomplished ! With what order do the countless
messages from an extended prospect pass through the air
along the ether, enter the eye and by the retina and nerve
fibres give in their report. From a mountain top we
may see a hundred hills, a thousand fields, out to sea,
many woods and streams, houses and roads, horses, cattle,
and sheep, men and women, while the sky looks down on
us a calm ethereal blue, or shows clouds of various tints.
From such a prospect how many waves spring, how many
beams flow, how many motions enter the eye ! They are
every instant numerous as the dust of a mighty mountain,
as the sand of all the seas. And yet, crowded as they
are, crowded and packed as nothing surely was ever
crowded and packed, they pass in all their mighty
multitude through the little opening of the eye without
the least approach to disorder. They keep their place,
dart straight to their goal, and deliver up their message.
And these messages have not only been borne from all
quarters to the one point from which we have supposed
them observed, but to all other points within their
range. What mingling are here ! What crossings in
every direction ! What billions of billions of waves
passing in the smallest space, passing without jostling
or interference ! What a sea of rapid, beautiful, and
orderly movement ! Every colour within view is re-

RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 69

ported on by its own number of vibrations. The green
fields, the woods and streams, and houses, and living
forms arrest for an inconceivably minute fraction of a
second the rays that fall on them, but in that fraction of
a second they have moulded them to their will, they
have shorn them according to their fashion, they have
made them their servants, they have sent them on their
errand, and long before the second is over, if we may use
such language, their errand has been run, their message
has been delivered. What magic is here ! What work
is accomplished ! What journeys are made ! How lightly
are burdens taken up ! With what speed they are
carried ! With what accuracy they are delivered ! This
is surely the perfection of burden-bearing, the very
grandest triumph of message-carrying.

And the universe is filled with such work. And
everywhere the same perfection reigns, the same brilliant
order holds the field. Over the whole earth, throughout
the heaven of heavens, there is not a touch of chaos.
Rays come from the moon. From the planets they make
their way to our planet. They pour down from the sun.
They descend from the most distant stars and star
clusters. No distance is too great for them to travel.
They faint not, neither are weary. They journey through
space for thousands of years, never relaxing their speed,
but darting onward, ever onward, till they are perchance
arrested by some world to which they deliver up their
message. Can then any machine, instrument, or agency
be compared with this 1 The work done is enormous,
beyond the power of words, illustrations, or imaginings
to indicate even an insignificant part of it. It is accom-
plished with ease, smoothness, and exquisite perfection.
The widest principles, the most beautiful laws, the
simplest arrangements are seen in it. Is then the ex-

70 THE CREATION OF MATTER

istence of such an instrument due to chance? Is a
machine so vast and perfect the work of haphazard?
Is it by merest accident that a sea so extended and so
fine, of a nature so different from ordinary matter and
yet in so many ways measured and adjusted to it, a sea
so exquisitely adapted for the illumination of the uni-
verse— is it by merest accident that such a sea has being 1
No sane mind can believe absurdity so extreme.

Considering the ether sea as a whole, how great and
marvellous it is ! Its vastness astounds. Its nature,
continuity, and sameness through all known space amazes.
Its modes of action within itself, and in its relationships
to ordinary matter, transport with admiration. The great
Apostle of the Gentiles speaks of an hour in which he was
caught up to the third heaven and heard words not to
be uttered on earth. The things of that celestial region
needed a language of their own to express the magnifi-
cence of their glory. And such are the qualities of the
ether, so far do they surpass those of ordinary matter,
that the language which men have been accustomed to
employ in speaking of the familiar things of the world,
is but veriest feebleness when employed to set them
forth. Its every quality is transcendent. It is of tran-
scendent fineness. Choose we those threads that are
finest as of silk or gold, what are they but grossness
compared with sunbeams. Its elasticity is transcendent,
hundreds of times greater than of spring steel. The
velocity of its forward and transverse motions convey
to the mind an overpowering sense of the measure in.
which in this respect it goes beyond the action of any
kind of matter. And yet widely separated as it is from
atoms and molecules, its every property is adjusted to
and measured for them. Its qualities are in every respect
collocated at the right point, to enable it to minister to

RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 71

them, to render them service necessary to their useful-
ness. This wondrous entity fits into a wondrous place
in the order of the universe. How overmastering is the
evidence that it is the work of mind ! How impossible
that entities so different and yet so necessary to each
other's action and efficiency should have happened to
exist from eternity in measures and numbers so enor-
mous and so minutely and variously adjusted to each
other.

The ether medium does not exist for itself, and it ia
as certain that it does not exist in order so dazzling of
itself. It ministers to ordinary matter, and by the glory
of its ministry makes known the mind from which it
has come. It makes manifest matter. It makes manifest
mind. It reveals things seen. It reveals things unseen.
It illumines the universe with physical light. It shows
it filled with the light of an understanding in which is no
darkness.

The relations existing between the ether and the mole-
cules reveal their order also and the perfection of their
action. We have seen that the ether is so constituted
that its motions are not reflected diffusely by the nitrogen
and oxygen of the atmosphere. It may be as justly
argued that the molecules of these gases are so consti-
tuted as not to reflect them in this manner. Other gases
are of various colours, but they are of no colour. Not
a molecule of either of the two forwards any impression
to the eye. How important this is it is easy to see, and
how fine the adjustments involved it is not difficult to
perceive. The molecules of chlorine, on the other hand,
are so adjusted to the great medium, the motions of all
are so similarly determined, that they absorb the same
waves and scatter the same. They therefore resemble
each other exactly in those characteristics on which the

72 THE CREATION OF MATTER

absorbing and scattering of waves depend. The chloro-
phyl in grass and other vegetables has the motions of its
molecules so timed that they reflect prevailingly a vivid
green. The dazzling yellow of furze and broom, the
brilliant loveliness of flowers, fruit-tree blossoms, and
purple heath tell of molecules beautifully ordered and
adjusted to ether motions, so as to enable them to glow
with these colours. They are put to the test by a most
delicate touchstone, and are not found wanting.

The molecules also of each substance in the midst of
heat motions have their own waves to which they give
birth. Those of carbon create all the waves, and so yield
white light. To do this they must have so many rela-
tions to the medium ; there must be so many character-
istics in their own form and motions as enable them to
affect the ether in seven different measures, producing
the seven different numbers of billions of vibrations. As
carbon is the great source of artificial light on the earth,
is it not very remarkable that it should be so richly en-
dowed as to be able to bring into play all the capacities
of the ether? The molecules of lithium transform the
heat motions into the vibrations of red light only, those
of sodium into the vibrations of yellow light, while those
of thallium and indium produce the billions which yield
green and blue respectively. The molecules of lithium
are thus shown to possess such energies and motions that
when the heat waves are dashed against them they raise
the number of their transverse vibrations to 395 billions.
All the molecules of this element have their powers in
this respect thus accurately determined. Those of the
other three substances have their powers in like manner
exquisitely measured. What, then, has produced results
BO uniform? What has measured and adjusted the
energies at work in the molecules of these four sub-

RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 73

stances as that they might be capable in each case of
raising to just so many billions of vibrations ? The waves
created by sodium are affected to the extent of 110
billion transverse vibrations more than in the case of
lithium, while indium adds 263 billions more than in
the case of sodium. Has it not then required the most
careful measuring and adjusting in order to add with
accuracy numbers of vibrations so great? The elasticity
of the medium is so transcendent that slight differences
affect it. What, then, can measure such differences with
the necessary nicety? What can measure and collocate
forces so exquisitely in entities of such sensibility ? In
the case of carbon, what could endow it with so many
potencies ? What can do these things but an intelligence
of extraordinary perceptive, distinguishing, and practical
power ?

It is in lithium as if the teeth of a wheel and the
rapidity of its motions were so adjusted to those of
another as to create in it 395 billion revolutions in a
second. How difficult it would be to make two such
wheels ! How difficult to find suitable materials and
forces ! How much thought and calculation and measur-
ing would be necessary in the making ! And if one
were to find a multitude innumerable of such wheels,
perfectly adjusted and working with inimitable smooth-
ness and ease, would he say, What marvellous chances
meet here ! How wonderful that these should have
happened to exist from eternity, so measured, adjusted,
and collocated ! Assuredly not. He would bid such a
suggestion away from him with infinite contempt. In
nature we have the likeness of such wheels; we have
what produces like results. We have the molecules of
lithium, sodium, indium, and the multiplied points of
the ether. And these are so adjusted to each other that

74 THE CREATION OF MATTER

every molecule of the three substances acts on the points
of the other so as to fix the number of vibrations in it
at 395, 505, or 763 billions. What then can we do
with the suggestion of chance or blind evolution as
sufficient to account for such phenomena but as in the
case of wheels, fling them from us with infinite scorn.
The existence of worlds of atoms and molecules and of
an immense ether differing so widely from each other,
and yet so admirably adapted in nature and action to
each other, can only be accounted for by the one being
made for the other by an all-powerful Mind.

Vi

SOUND AND MUSIC

Causes — Media — Waves — Periodic Motions — Musical — Non -
periodic— Noises— Waves in Air, Water, Earth— Reflection-
Refraction— Telocity— Numbers of Waves— Length— Vibra-
tions of Strings — Rods — Plates — Bells — Resonance.

THE eye and light are the means by which we are enabled
to move to and fro on the earth, to work safely and
skilfully. By the ear and sound intercourse is carried
on between man and man. The laws of light have
afforded many arguments in favour of the making of
the ether by which it is transmitted, and also of the
molecules of matter for which its properties are measured,
and the order in which it puts to the finest test. The
laws of sound, the modes in which it is originated and
conveyed, contribute also a rich quota of facts sustaining
the same contention.

Even in the infancy of scientific investigation, a true,
though necessarily vague, idea of the cause of sound was
formed. The language of Aristotle is such that, as has
been said, admirers in their enthusiasm might, without
much difficulty, draw from it a pretty full and accurate
account of the manner in which it is produced and
propagated. That it is caused by the motions of a
vibrating body borne through the air to the ear was
universally held. At the same time the nature of the
motions was unknown.

75

76 THE CREATION OF MATTER

Production of sound. — Any body made to vibrate is
capable of producing the sensation of sound. Any kind
of blow, as a hammer striking a nail, the explosion of a
rifle, a flash of lightning, a bow drawn across a string, a
reed agitated, any force acting so as to produce vibrations
in sufficient numbers creates sound.

A medium of conveyance is necessary. Where there is
nothing to strike or be struck, there can be no emission
of sound. Where there is nothing to receive or convey
the motions produced by a stroke, they cannot be con-
veyed. A glass jar is made to rest on the plate of an air-
pump. Within it is a bell associated with clockwork.
The jar is emptied of air by exhaustion. By means of
a rod descending into the glass, the detent holding the
hammer is loosed, the hammer strikes the bell, arid
sound motions are created in it. But as there is no air
to receive and forward them, they are not forwarded.
They cannot therefore be heard. Putting the ear to the
jar, a dull thud strikes it. The clock is hung by strings,
and that noise passes through them to the outside. Were
the air admitted, the bell would ring clearly.

Sound is carried by wave motions. Their characteristics
have already been described in treating of light, and have
been illustrated by those of water. In the waves of the
sea, as we saw, the water does not advance, but the rising
and falling. If a flexible string, fastened at one end, be
held in the hand, and be drawn quickly to one side and back
again, a wave will run along it. In this case it is very
easy to see that the particles of the string do not run
along, but the motions only. And so sound motions are
carried, not by the first particles of air struck being borne
forward to the ear, but by their striking the next, and
they the next, and so onward. The first, moving forward
a little, stop ; they then return, and so oscillate to and

SOUND AND MUSIC 77

fro till they come to rest. The particles ordinarily being
a little separated from each other as the motions advance,
are driven on each other, and a condensation takes place,
then, as they recoil, there is a separation and rarefaction,
and this process is repeated, while the vibrations go on.
The particles are made to vibrate, not in a direction
transverse to the advancing wave, but in a line with it.
The condensations correspond to the crests of the waves
of the sea, and the rarefactions to the troughs. As the
waves of water rise till they reach the greatest height
and then begin to fall, so the particles advance till
they reach the greatest condensation and then begin
to rarefy.

All material particles convey waves. They are forwarded
not by air only, but by hydrogen and all gases, water and
all liquids, stones, and the firmest solids, iron, and every
metal. Divers in the sea hear the waves dashing against
the shore. Every wave as it strikes the sand creates
innumerable motions in the air, the solid ground, and in
the water. Sound runs easily through the sea. A bell
weighing 800 Ib. was let down about 20 feet into
the sea through a well hole in a specially constructed
vessel, the clapper of the bell remaining under the
control of those on board the ship. When the bell was
struck it was plainly heard in the hold of another ship
a mile away. When it was replaced by a man and a
speaking trumpet, listeners could hear at a distance of
three miles. The earth carries sound. An ear put to it
will hear the tramp of infantry, the march of cavalry.
Sound waves pass also through stone walls, and along
iron rods.

Waves are periodic and musical or non-periodic and
unmusical. The motions of the pendulum of a clock are
periodic. The times of its swinging to and fro are

78 THE CREATION OF MATTER

equal. Periodic waves are those which follow each
other at the same intervals, that execute their oscillations
in the same time. When the waves succeed each other
with sufficient rapidity, and at the same intervals of time,
they make music to the ear. When they follow each
other at irregular intervals, they produce a noise that
grates on our sense of hearing. It matters not from
what source the force originating the motions comes ; if
they be periodic, they are musical ; if unperiodic, they are
unmusical. From the finest instrument a confused jangle
may be made to issue.

All simple sounds are periodic and musical. A noise
is always composed of two or more simple sounds super-
posed on each other irregularly. A resonator is an
instrument made to re-echo one tone, and one tone only.
It will select, and respond to, and so reveal the presence
of that tone, if it be in any combination of sounds. If
it be not present, the resonator will be silent. Apply
resonators to a noise, and they will show what notes are
mingling in confusion in it, and that the components are
pure and true and pleasant as music. Make a noise with
a piano by striking its keys anyhow, and it is easy to see
that each key struck makes a musical sound, and that it is
their irregular mingling that makes the unpleasantnesses.
Every simple sound is thus seen to be in all respects
perfect. It is pleasant to the sense. It is in finest
harmony with the perceptive power. Its wave vibra-
tions, which strike the tympanum, are periodic. To and
fro the particles oscillate, always passing the same point
in the same interval. The order that is in all material
particles, and in their sensibility to force, is thus beauti-
fully exhibited. Their forms and characteristics, in their
relationships to each other, are such that they are
naturally fitted for executing perfect motions. Struck

SOUND AND MUSIC 79

irregularly, they cannot but move irregularly. Struck
regularly, they move with a regularity that never fails.
Were they a scene of disorder, harmonic motions would
be impossible; the sounds produced would be confused
and intolerable noises. But every simple sound, every
note of music, proclaims the order which reigns in the
particles by which it is conveyed. Every noise even,
when it is analysed, bears the same testimony.

Periodic motions mingle harmoniously on the most mag-
nificent scale. Single voices, as of the lark, the nightin-
gale, and prima donna, are thrilling to hear. In a grand
orchestra, accompanied by musical instruments, multi-
tudinous motions mingle. They flow out in their
hundreds of thousands in a second. They flow out soft
and sweet, grand and beautiful. They mingle together.
They follow each other in order, every motion in the
place of harmony, every motion keeping rank, and
faithful to an alliance of wondrous obligations. Eapid
and multitudinous as they are, they throw not, in their
haste, each other into confusion, they jostle not, they
clash not, they produce not a hurricane of the irregular
and intolerable, but a storm of the ordered and trans-
porting. They are not as a crowd hastening wildly from
the terrors of a building on fire, contending, struggling,
trampling each other down. They are like an army
marching over an extended plain, every man in his
place, every footstep timed, their very feet having music
in them. Their order is as perfect as that of atoms
springing into combination, as those of light vibrations
entering the eye. They enter the ear, crowded and
packed though not as those of light, they enter it in
an order magnificent to consider. A single and simple
note, in which the motions follow each other at a
measured distance of time and space, shows the fitness

8o THE CREATION OF MATTER

of the conveying medium, the perfection with which it
acts responsive to a measured stroke; but that great
clusters of strokes should produce, every second, myriads
of motions following each other with exquisite periodicity,
forms a testimony to their condition of overmastering
force.

Of the various media, consider the air. In a grand
concert the motions fill a large hall to its every corner.
Every particle in it is moving with exquisite grace, is
responding to every touch and tone and change of tone ;
to the low, to the high, to the soft, to the grand, is
playing its part as skilfully as the most practised of
hands. Here as in light let genius do its best in pro-
ducing music admired of all generations, let the
Mendelssohns, the Mozarts, the Wagners, pour them-
selves forth each with his own that, his own brilliant
characteristics ; let the hand of genius, as of Stradivarius,
make instruments, and also make them almost speak ;
let the kings and queens of song combine together and
surpass themselves, the conveying medium will do justice
to them. Have you gone out on a lovely spring morning,
the sun shining as he alone can, and he only at morn or
eventide ; the young grass in its loveliest robe of green,
and every blade of grass sparkling with nature's diamonds ;
have you gone forth and stood enthralled, listening to
the song of the lark as it soared, to its outpouring of the
most delicious notes, have you noticed that not far off
and all round were others; have you walked or driven
along a country road and found on every side the air thus
occupied? Has imagination wandered to every valley
and plain in all our land, and listened to myriads of
sweet songsters, and at the same time seen the air filled
with motions as perfect and as beautiful as the sounds
that captivated the ear? And every country has its

SOUND AND MUSIC 81

song-birds, and the earth is girdled with music, and
the perfection of the work of the air medium is re-
vealed.

What shall we say also of the waters of the sea, occu-
pied for miles with the motions of a bell, with those of
the articulate sounds of a speaking-trumpet.

The trampling of men and horses, as we have seen,
create near and far waves, which reach the ear, and pro-
duce in it the sensation of sound. The particles along
the ground receive the motions with a sensibility that
never fails, and send them forward with a faithfulness
that knows not how to come short. The very character-
istics of the sounding body they transmit. The peculiar
features distinguishing it, and revealing its nature, they
accurately convey. The motions are invisible. The eye
cannot detect them. They send no messengers to it. To
it the ground is at rest and is still. To the feet and the
hands, or any part of the sense of touch, they exist not.
But to the ear they are abundantly evident. It has
power to take them in. It has the sensibility which
enables it to receive and convey them to the brain, from
which they pass to the perceiving nature, and to it they
are transformed into sounds. The particles of the ground
are so constituted, and possess a freedom of action among
themselves, which enable them to respond to the tramp
of men and horses, and not to them only but to the
music of the drum, the pipe, the many instruments of
the band, and to execute, over a wide extent, harmonic
motions thrilling to consider. The whole ground is by
such means thrown in its every particle into activity, in
which condensations and rarefactions are being executed
with a regularity which defies description.

What to appearance is more difficult to move than the
particles which make up bricks and stones. They seem
6

82 THE CREATION OF MATTER

at the greatest distance from any kind of motion among
themselves. And yet, who has not heard through a
gable wall the finest music, proving that the particles
through and through were executing harmonic motions.
There is not a wall in this city the particles of which its
bells do not largely stir. When they are ringing even
granite stones are moved. They are charmed. Their
particles on the largest scale dart to and fro, execute
motions corresponding to those in the metal. They beat
also on the stones of the street. They spread out afar
through the air. The imagination exults in the multi-
tude and range of particles executing the same motions.
They make to the mind endeavouring to realise them a
scene of brilliant order and beauty. It is impossible, as
the clang bursts over the city, as the chimes fall in sweet-
ness on the ear, as the musical notes of psalm or hymn
flow out, — it is impossible to listen without acknowledg-
ing the splendour of the music, the delight which it
carries in its wings. It is as impossible to survey in
imagination the motions of the sea of particles, numerous
as the stars of the universe many times multiplied, with-
out being as much lost in wonder and delight in presence
of a splendour of order as beautiful to the mind as is
the music to the ear.

The waves of sound behave as those of light. They
are reflected and refracted. Speaking in face of a wall,
the waves rush forward, reach it, and are instantly sent
back again. To this is due the resonance in churches
and halls when empty. Echoes are thus produced.
Distinct and clearly articulated words are sent back from
considerable distances. Calling at one point in the
King's Park, Edinburgh, towards Morningside, the
words are instantly sent back. There are such echoes
in not a few places, and sometimes, between reflecting

SOUND AND MUSIC 83

surfaces, they are reflected again and again, and die away
in sweetest cadences. Curved roofs reflect sounds, and
sometimes concentrate them at points. Sound is also
refracted even as light.

Velocity of sound. — Its velocity passing through any
medium depends on the elasticity in relation to the
density, and when these are known the velocity is easily
determined, and always corresponds with the results
obtained by experiment. Density depends on tempera-
ture, and therefore its increase or decrease affects the
speed of transmission. In gases the velocity is least.
In air at 0° Centigrade it is 1090 feet per second ; at 5°,
1109 ; at 26-6°, 1140. The increase is very nearly 2 feet
for every degree of temperature. The temperature may
be deduced from the velocity of sound. So perfect is
the observance of law in all material particles, so inti-
mately are their various characteristics connected, that
one may be employed to determine the other. All their
properties and potencies are measured. The velocity
in oxygen at 0° C. is 1040 feet per second; in hy-
drogen, 4164 feet; in carbonic oxide, 1107 feet; in car-
bon dioxide, 858 feet. Each gas has at the same tempera-
ture the same measured relationship of elasticity to
density, and the same velocity with which it transmits
sound. In liquids the velocity is greater than in gases.
In river water, as in the Seine, at 15° C. it is 4174 feet
per second ; at 60° it is 5657. A salt dissolved in water
increases its elasticity in relation to its density, and so
makes the velocity greater. In a solution of common
salt at 18° it is 5130; of chloride of calcium, 6493.
In solids the elasticity in relation to the density is much
greater than in liquids, and therefore the transmission of
sound is much more rapid. In iron it is 16,822 feet per
second ; in copper, 11,666 ; in platinum, 8815 ; in silver,

84 THE CREATION OF MATTER

8853. In fir, along the fibre, it is 15,218 feet; in oak,
12,622; in pine, 10,900. Thus in water the velocity is
four times greater than in air ; in pine ten times ; in iron
nearly seventeen times. If a long iron bar be struck,
and an ear be applied to it at a distance, two sounds are
heard, one along the iron and the other later through
the air. Each substance has thus its own velocity with
which it propagates sound. Between different substances
the differences are great, but in the same substances in
the same circumstances the samenesses are perfect. Air
and every gas, water and whatsoever is liquid, iron and
all metals, fir and wood of every fibre, each and all are
true to their kind. So perfect is the accuracy that,
given the velocity of sound, through any substance at a
certain temperature, it would be possible to name it.
So perfectly, according to temperature, throughout the
whole realm of matter, are the elasticities and densities
and their relationships determined. In all this we see
the importance of elasticity as a property of matter, and
of motions advancing by waves, and not by the advance
of the substances. Air advancing at 800 miles an hour
would be irresistible. But through the elasticity of
material particles a mode of motion is obtained which
advances with a high velocity, and yet with a gentleness
imperceptible.

Sound is enfeebled by distance according to law. This
is obvious to everyone endowed with the faculty of
hearing. There is no loss of force generated, but it is
evident that the volume of air acted on as the motions
advance is constantly increasing, and therefore the force
is divided among a greater number of particles. At any
point the intensity varies inversely as the square of the
distance.

The number of the waves. — Two instruments have been

SOUND AND MUSIC 85

invented for the purpose of numbering them. One is
called Savart's wheel. In it there is a larger wheel
driving a smaller, which is toothed. A piece of card-
board or strip of metal is so set as to touch the teeth as
they go round. When the wheel is made to go slowly,
clicks are heard. As the rapidity increases, the sound-
ing rises to a continuous and harmonious blow. Knowing
the number of teeth and of the revolutions in a second,
the number of blows, and consequently of vibrations, is
determined. In the siren a quick succession of puffs of
air produces a musical sound. There is in it a wheel
driving a circular disc, with holes at regular intervals,
and a bellows which throws air on it as it rotates. As
the rotation proceeds, the air is intercepted and passes
through alternately, and when the motion is sufficiently
rapid, and puffs sufficiently numerous, a note is produced.
When an instrument or voice is sounding a note, it is
only necessary to set one of these instruments in motion
with a velocity which yields the same note in order to
find the number of vibrations in it. In this manner the
number of vibrations of certain insects' wings is found.
In one case there are 12,000 in a second.

Tuning-forks yielding certain notes can thus have the
number of their waves determined, as that they are 256,
320, 384, and 512 per second. The octave of every
note is found by doubling the number of vibrations. A
note of a hundred waves has for its first, second, third,
fourth, and fifth octaves, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200.
The lowest number, according to Helmholtz, which can
make an impression on the human ear is 1 6 ; the highest
38,000. This represents a range of more than eleven
octaves. The practical range is, however, from 40 to
4000, or seven octaves, thus equalling the number of
colours. And as in the case of colours the sensations

86 THE CREATION OF MATTER

are due to accurately numbered vibrations, so it is in the
case of sounds. Begin where we please with any num-
ber of vibrations, by doubling them a musical and prac-
tised ear recognises the sound as the octave of the first.
Thus, from 40, the lowest, to 4000, the highest, the
sounds ascend, step by step, with a regularity which
commands our admiration, even as the music which
they make.

The length of the waves. — As the motion is uniform
throughout, it is evident that the time required by any
particle to execute a complete vibration is also the time
in which a wave moves forward a distance equal to its
own length. A particle rushes forward and a condensa-
tion is produced, it stops, it rushes backward to the point
whence it came, and while it is doing so, the motion
which it has created, advancing with the same velocity,
darts forward the same distance as it does backward. In
the time in which a complete oscillation is thus performed
by the first particle, the motion has advanced by one wave
length ; when it has made two oscillations, by two wave
lengths ; when it has made 200 oscillations, by 200 wave
lengths. When a tuning-fork vibrates 250 times in a
second, it also in the same time forms 250 waves, and
advances 1120 feet. The length of 250 waves is there-
fore 1120 feet, and so dividing, we get the length of one
as 4 feet 5 inches. Three tuning-forks, vibrating 320,
384, and 512 times per second, create waves 3 feet
6 inches, 2 feet 11 inches, and 2 feet 2 inches in length.
In hydrogen, waves of a certain length yield a note two
octaves higher than if formed in air, because, in conse-
quence of the velocity of advance, the ear receives four
times the number of impulses. Each substance has its
own measure of wave for each note, and always and every-
where for that substance in the same circumstances it is

SOUND AND MUSIC 87

the same, illustrating the exactness with which their
elasticity and density have been determined and meted
out to them.

Vibration of strings. — Pluck aside a string at its middle
point, and the whole vibrates to and fro, yielding what
is called its fundamental note. When a bridge is placed
at the middle and either half is plucked aside, a note is
produced which is the octave of the fundamental. A third
part yields a note which is a fifth above the octave.
Half the string creates twice as many vibrations as the
whole; one-third three times as many; one-fourth four
times the number. The law is that the number of vibra-
tions is inversely proportional to the length of the string.

The number also depends on the tension of the string,
or on the force by which it is stretched. For experiment a
string is fixed at a point, passes at once over one bridge,
and after an interval over another, then over a wheel
which moves freely. It is then stretched by a weight.
If the weight be a pound, and the vibrations so many, in
order to double the number, or obtain the octave, it is
necessary to stretch by a weight of four pounds ; to treble
the number, the weight must be nine pounds ; to quad-
ruple, it must be sixteen. If other things be equal, the
number of vibrations is in proportion to the square roots
of the stretching weights.

The thickness of the string also plays its part, produces
its appropriate and measured effect. If two strings be
alike in every respect except in thickness, and the dia-
meter of the one be twice that of the other, the thinner
string will create twice the number of vibrations of the
thicker. If the diameter of the one be three or four or
five times that of the other, the number of vibrations will
be lessened three or four or five times, showing the law
to be that it is inversely proportional to the thickness.

88 THE CREATION OF MATTER

Hence there are thicker strings in instruments for the
lower notes and thinner for the higher. The number of
vibrations is also inversely proportional to the density of
the strings. Combining these two, we have a law that
the number of vibrations is inversely proportional to the
square root of the weight of the strings.

Here, as everywhere, all is according to law, measures,
and numbers. Strings of the same measures produce in
the same kinds of particles the same number of oscillations.
The particles aggregated and cohering in the strings exe-
cute their motions accurately, according to their length,
tension, diameter, and density. The particles of every
medium by which sound is carried respond with unfailing
accuracy to measured causes, and yield sounds in harmony
with those causes.

Musical instruments differ in the qualities of the notes
they yield, in what has been called their timbre or clang-
tint. This is due to overtones. A stretched string may
be made to vibrate in whole or in parts. It is found
impossible in practice to make it vibrate as a whole with-
out also vibrating in parts. The higher notes, produced
by the parts, are termed the harmonics of the string. It
is the union of the harmonics with the fundamental note
that gives to each instrument the peculiarities or tint that
distinguishes it. If fundamental notes be separated from
harmonics, from whatever source they come they cannot
be recognised as different. It is therefore a very beauti-
ful arrangement that sounding bodies should give birth
to overtones in addition to those that are specially sought
from them, and that there should thus be produced so
great and pleasing a variety of clang-tint. It is an ex-
quisite result that the overtones should all be harmonics
of the fundamental, should be of such a nature as to blend
with it, and with each other, to form one perfectly

SOUND AND MUSIC 89

beautiful and characteristic sound. In all music the over-
tones are evidently more numerous than the fundamental,
and if they had been out of harmony with it and with
each other, the effect would have been disastrous. A
musical string, a musical instrument, could not have been
made. That none such appear is due to the perfect order
that reigns in nature, to the perfect adjustment of its
particles in aggregation for harmonic action.

The vibrations of rods. — When they are fixed at both
ends, the laws of their action are, in some respects, the
same as in strings. Those of vibrating parts, when divisions
are made by damping, are different on account of the differ-
ent forces brought into play, namely, the elasticity of
the rod itself, and not external causes of tension. The
number of vibrations, when the whole rod oscillates, and
when there are two or three divisions, are as 9 to 25, to
49, to 81, or as the squares of the uneven numbers.
Reasons might be assigned why the proportions should be
as the squares, but the facts are very striking.

The vibrations of a rod, fixed at one end and free at
the other, are also produced through the elasticity of its
substance. The number of vibrations in a unit of time is
inversely proportional to the square of the length of the
rod. If a rod 36 inches long vibrate once in a second,
one 12 inches long will vibrate nine times, one 6 inches
long thirty-six times, one 3 inches 144 times, one a
single inch 1296 times. Plates and bells follow the same
laws. The celebrated Chladin first employed fine sand
sprinkled on plates to show to the eye the motions in
them when vibrating. A square plate of metal is fixed
at its centre. The middle of one of the sides is damped
by the touch of the finger nail, and a violin bow is drawn
across near to one of the corners. The sand is at once set
in motion, and arranges itself in lines from side to side

go THE CREATION OF MATTER

through the centre at right angles to each other. This
division of the plate corresponds to the deepest tone.
Again sprinkling sand over the surface, and damping one
of the corners, and drawing a bow across the centre of one
of the sides, the experimenter sees the sand dancing over
the plate, and finally arranging itself along the diagonals.
The note produced is the fifth above the fundamental.
If two points be damped on one side, and a bow be drawn
across that opposite to it, a much shriller note is heard,
diagonal lines are formed, and the two nodes are joined
by a curve. By various dampings a great many beautiful
figures are drawn by the sand. Round plates also exhibit
regular motions. One is set horizontally on a stand,
blackened in colour, and fine white sand scattered over it.
If its edge be damped at any point, and a bow be drawn
across 45° distant, it yields its fundamental note, and the
sand arranges itself along two diameters. If the bow be
drawn across at the distance of 30° from the point damped,
the sand takes the form of a star, in which there are
six nodal lines, forming six segments. In some way the
plate may be divided into 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 segments. The
number is always even. As the divisions are multiplied,
the vibrations become more numerous, and the note is
raised in pitch. That given forth by sixteen sectors is
painful in its sharpness.

Bells exhibit the phenomena of vibrating discs, and if
one be filled with water, and struck, music wavelets are
formed.

Sound vibrations are also created in a longitudinal
direction — in strings, rods, plates, and bells. They are
produced by a bow drawn obliquely over a string, or by
means of cloth or leather powdered with resin, and
drawn sharply along. An iron wire is attached to a
sounding board, and drawn tight at the other end.

SOUND AND MUSIC 91

When resined cloth is moved to and fro along it, a
musical note is heard much higher than if it were
plucked aside. If the wire be divided into two halves,
the number of vibrations is doubled, and the octave of
the first note is heard. If a third of it be taken, it yields
the fifth above the octave ; if a fourth, the second octave.
In longitudinal vibrations, as in transversal, the number
is proportional to the length of the wire. It is not the
wire that gives forth the sound, but the sounding board.
The vibrations created by it are at right angles to those
in the wire, and so are transversal. In it the particles of
the iron are set in rapid motion, to and fro, in the direc-
tion of the length, and in that direction are harmonic,
are exceedingly rapid, and so yield a high-pitched note.

An iron rod and a brass will yield the same note if
their lengths be in proportion to the velocity of sound in
them, i.e. as 11 to 17.

Notes are also produced in rods of wood by rubbing
with resined leather, and they follow the same laws.

Harmonic motions are produced in rods free at both
ends. A glass tube is held at the centre, and one end
vigorously rubbed, when a musical note is emitted.
Longitudinal vibrations are created from end to end of
the rod, and at the further end pieces fall off in rings.

Resonance. — A tuning-fork vibrating, say, 256 times
in a second, placed over a glass jar, may yield little or no
sound. Pour water into the jar, the sound increases, till
reaching a certain height it bursts forth loudly. On
measuring the depth to the water, it is found to be
13 inches, or one-fourth the length of the sonorous
wave of such a fork. The motions from the prong, and
those reflected from the water, are timed for each other,
and so unite, and the note becomes loud and clear.
Every tuning-fork has its own depth of jar, which

92 THE CREATION OF MATTER

causes resonance. From this it is evident that resonators
may be made which shall be responsive to only one note
in the scale, and thus may be employed to discover if
that note be present in any sound. It is by means of
resonators that the difference in clang-tint in musical
instruments is found to be due to overtones.

As in their chemical activities and the motions they
produce in light, so in their action in yielding sound, the
ordered condition of material elements is revealed. The
particles, urged on by the force of elasticity, execute
motions that vie in regularity with those seen in any
other field.

The measures of elasticity, found in nature, are collo-
cated at points and within ranges such that they produce
motions which fit into the range of the perceiving organ.
Had they been rapid as those of light, they would have
been imperceptible. In that science we dealt with hun-
dreds of billions. Light motions begin at about 400
billions and end at towards 800. Those of sound begin,
practically, at 40 per second, and end at 4000, although
fewer and nearly ten times larger numbers may be
heard. Thus between the ranges of the numbers of
motions in sound and light the difference is very great,
but both are suitable, each for the organ to which it
ministers.

The ear forms a delicate test of the regularity of the
action of the particles. The least disorder produces
noises. And it abhors and is pained by them. There
are noises that are terrible to hear. But these are not
due to nature's work, to the originating cause in its
particles, nor to those of the conveying medium. Their
honour has been saved by the discovery that noises are
composed of pleasant sounds, irregularly mingled, irregu-
larly caused. Let a cause work regularly and the sound

SOUND AND MUSIC 93

will be pleasant. The ordered originating cause and the
conveying medium work unto perfection. They respond
to the highest skill. They satisfy the finest ear. There
are those that have a genius for music, that have per-
ceptive power of exquisite sensibility. They may often
be pained by performers, and discover noises in their
work, but they never dream of blaming nature's ele-
ments. They know that they respond to their own
finest work, and fail them never.

We have spoken of particles because sound motions
are borne forward, not strictly by the molecules and
atoms ; but in the last resort their properties determine
all, for were they not ordered the particles could do
nothing.

VII
LIFE— PROTOPLASM

Protoplasm — Its First Appearance — Complex Construction —
Environment — Evolution from Elements — Haeckel's Carbon
Theory— Special Life Element.

LIFE is of profoundest interest. It is an element having
a charm all its own. It enters into, and on it depends,
the formation of organic structures, in which are riches
of order. It appears in a protoplasmic unit, in the lowly
moss, in grass of the field, in flowers of the garden, in
the noble oak and fruitful vine. It rises higher in riches
and power in the fowls of the air, fish of the sea, and
beasts of the field. It flows in majesty in man. In him
it receives its loftiest consecration, rises into its highest
field of action.

We are met at the threshold by the question, What
is life ? What is its nature ? In what does it consist ?
Does it result from a peculiar combination of atoms built
up into a complex structure? Or is it some form of
immaterial entity, having relations to and consequently
power over matter, to control and direct its action ? We
do not propose to discuss these questions, but to show
that the known elements entering into its production
reveal in their action the clearest signs that they are the
work of a great understanding, and that the special
entity, if such there be, proceeds from the same exalted
source. The simplest form of life is protoplasm, which,

94

LIFE— PROTOPLASM 95

Haeckel says, is "a connected chain of material pheno-
mena, of atoms placed together in a most varied manner."
Professor Huxley affirmed that a mass of living proto-
plasm is simply a molecular machine of great complexity,
the total results of the working of which, or its vital
phenomena, depend on the one hand on its constitution,
and on the other on the energy supplied to it. They
maintain that, although abiogenesis be now unknown,
protoplasm must have come into existence through the
action of natural causes going before. Let us admit their
contention and consider the consequences to which it leads.
Protoplasm, suppose, has in it only material elements, and
was formed in the order of nature in a suitable environ-
ment. Making these admissions, we yet maintain that it
is wholly the work of mind — (1) in its origin, (2) in its
constitution, (3) in the environment in which it was
formed, and (4) in the elements entering into it.

(1) In its origin. — The first protoplasm was a mo-
mentous advance. Its coming into being was fraught
with consequences the grandest. What were the world
without life? What was it before the vital spark ap-
peared 1 It was a wilderness blank and lone. And when
the first protoplasm sprang into being with the dew of
youth upon it and inexhaustible possibilities stored in it,
well might the morning stars sing together and the sons
of God shout for joy. It was the beginning of a new
era, the dawn of a new and glorious day. It was the
appearance on the scene of a worker, still and lowly, but
of transcendent power. Was, then, the coming into
being of so potent a nature a mere contingency 1 Was it
an infinitely happy chance ? Did the good fortune of the
earth, which along with the universe in general seems
(if so we can believe) to have known the most marvellous
good fortune in its countless evolutions, serve it with

96 THE CREATION OF MATTER

special zeal in this most potent birth ? Did the world of
life, that has advanced so far and in directions so varied,
that has climbed so high and broken forth in organisa-
tions so dazzling, — did this world of life hang in the be-
ginning on a gossamer thread ? Is that first protoplasm,
which has marched steadily forward, producing at every
stage designs without number, and having in them
myriads of complex arrangements that seem the devising
of a God, — is that first protoplasm itself the work of
chance and haphazard? It is not, and it cannot be.
The human mind indignantly rebels against all doctrines
of the evolution of the ordered kosmos, of the evolution
of a single speck of protoplasm, save as the result of the
working of intelligence.

(2) In its constitution. — Protoplasm is a great art struc-
ture. A globule of it is a machine which man cannot
make, which all his genius cannot put together. It is a
building which no human skill can raise, the stones of
which no hand can set in their places. The atoms and
molecules in it are many. Its stones are numerous as
those in royal palaces. Its parts are more in number
than in complex machines. They are minute with a
minuteness which defies all means of perception. They
are collocated and joined together in a most varied
manner and with exquisite precision. There are mole-
cular motions, heat and life motions, without number.
A unit is thus formed, a speck of protoplasm put together
and built up, and life generated. It is an exquisite
building, an exquisite machine, in which are a thousand
measurings and joinings together, in which, at every
minutest point, the work is the finest, the adjustments
the nicest, the measurings and joinings the most perfect.
It is a gem of architecture, a machine showing invention
in its glory. It is the arrangement of a system of worlds

LIFE — PROTOPLASM 97

in an infinitesimal worldkin. A palace of like genius
would make its architect immortal. A machine as com-
plex and perfect would invest its inventor with undying
fame.

And the life in it vies with it in wonderfulness. The
building is an art triumph, and its inhabitant is royal in
interest and dignity. The machine is a gem of invention,
and the fire of the choicest of the world's jewels pales
and disappears before the glory flaming at its heart.
And this building Huxley and Haeckel affirm gives birth
to its inhabitant. The building produces as the result
of its matchless form its still more matchless indweller
occupying it. Its construction is an everlasting marvel,
and it is a marvel still greater in the life which it makes
to beat and throb within its chambers and galleries.
How then did this protoplasmic wonder spring into
being 1 To what are due combinations, measurings, so
many, so exquisite and fruitful ? To what but to a mind
of power equal to work so transcendent. The under-
standing must deny itself that refuses to see a Worker
so brilliantly revealed.

(3) In the environment. — The environment must have
been one, as far as can be seen, available under the
present conditions of the world. While the earth was
aglow with heat, where the ice king reigned with deadly
severity, life could not be generated. And as the environ-
ment cannot now be found, cannot now be formed, though
much the same circumstances must exist, its formation,
on the principles of Haeckel, must have been an event of
unparalleled good fortune, the very accident of accidents.
It must also have been of a very special nature, as special
as protoplasm itself, which now alone can accomplish the
work. It must have been as marvellously ordered, and
its properties measured and adapted for producing the
7

98 THE CREATION OF MATTER

necessary combinations and collocations, for compelling
the molecules to spring into the multitude of places
which it is necessary for them to take, and so to build
up a machine of such nicety and multiplicity of parts.
And so the environment was a work of mind. The
environment can only thus be accounted for. And every
element entering into it and forming it is richly ordered,
and must be ascribed to the same source.

If protoplasm came into being in a peculiar environ-
ment, it might have been (1) that only in that environ-
ment it would have been possible for it to persist ; and
(2) that it only should have been able to multiply in it,
and that it should not have been capable of multiplying
itself in a multitude of environments.

(4) In the elements. — Protoplasm, in its origin, even if
it came into existence as the fruit of operations going
before, is radiant with signs of mind. It is built up with
a brilliancy of constructive power unapproachable by man.
It yields the lofty element of life. The environment
necessary to its evolution and multiplication, to its pro-
cesses and advances, was also rich in the results of in-
telligent working. The elements, therefore, rising to so
great a height, yielding a form of being which has pro-
duced the whole living world, afford proofs of the most
convincing force from whence they have come. The
difficulty of building up the protoplasmic structure cannot
be exaggerated, and it is impossible to make too much of
it as an evidence of the many ordered qualities of the
substances which perform the work. The vitality of the
structure is of high rank, and that the atoms should be
capable by evolution and organisation of striking out a
spark so exalted and so permanent, evinces most clearly
that for it they have been specially endowed.

Protoplasmic globules are more wonderful than atoms,

LIFE— PROTOPLASM 99

molecules, and chemical compounds. All atoms existing
are measured, weighed, and shaped, and make easily
manifest the hand that made them. Chemical compounds
without number show a world of the most accurate
measuring of the atoms for each other, of the most
perfect adjustment of element to element. They also
develop qualities unknown to the elements entering
into them. But these results are surpassed by those of
protoplasm. Its life is a development which stands far
in front of and above the most remarkable results of
chemical combination. These results can be classed
together. They are of the same kind. They belong
to the same realm. But life cannot be classed with
them. It is not of their, it is of another kind. It does
not belong to their realm. It forms a kingdom of a new
and higher order. It has characteristics and powers
which brilliantly distinguish it and exalt it to a plane
of its own in the world of being. Glorious as are the
elements of matter, wonderfully measured also and ad-
justed in order to form chemical combinations with
properties so varied, they yet have no glory in these
operations, by reason of the glory that excelleth. In
producing the simplest living forms they surpass them-
selves, they take wings, they soar to the loftiest heights.
A speck of protoplasm is a new triumph of their working,
is a new revelation of what they can do, of the riches
of order and potency that characterise them. It makes
manifest their possession of endowments so peculiar and
so high as to add in an inexpressible measure to the
force of the argument derived from the chemical field
showing whence they come.

The essential substances forming protoplasm are carbon,
oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The atoms of these
elements do not show any signs of life. Their ordinary

ioo THE CREATION OF MATTER

compounds do not show any. They are found only in
protoplasm, into the composition of which all the four
kinds of atoms enter. Each element must, it is evident,
contribute something to the production of the result
attained, and the result must depend on its containing
that something. If carbon had been wanting in what
forms its contribution, if hydrogen had been lacking in
its quota, if oxygen and nitrogen had been unequal to
the demands made on them; if every atom of these
elements had not been distinguished by its own special
characteristic contributory to the building up of the
protoplasmic substance, life would not have been. A
multitude of conditions must be fulfilled in order that
the simplest living forms may be brought into existence.
It is a pure contingency that two atoms of carbon should
possess the necessary characteristics. It is a pure contin-
gency that two atoms of oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen
should. The contingencies go far beyond all numbers
that every atom of each kind existing in the universe
should. In producing results so peculiar out of entities
so vast in number, who can believe that chance had any
part, who can believe that it could have yielded atoms for
the least living globule 1 Have we not here irresistible
evidence that, if this view of the origin of life be true,
these elements of matter have been made and adapted for
their place and work ?

Nothing can be more irrational than to affirm of these
workers and their workings, that they simply say to us :
"We are as you see, and there is nothing and no
one beside us or behind us. We are workers. We are
matchless in form and endowment. We are adapted and
adjusted to each other. We form combinations. We
conduct processes. We build up structures. We kindle
life's spark. We are fitted for the work, and we do it,

LIFE— PROTOPLASM 101

and can say no more. We have no further revela
tion to make. We have no message from any world
unseen. We have no light from a higher sphere. We
exist, and we operate after our fashion, and that is all."
But it is not all. They do not thus speak. They are
thus made as if they were a chaos, as if they were on a
level with particles of different measures, characteristics,
and forces, and having no relationship to, and adaptation
for, each other, but fit only to exist in space, loose, use-
less, and inert incapability itself. The latter would have
no message. They could only say : " We exist. We
exist each particle by itself and for itself. We know not
each other. We are nothing to each other. We cannot
draw together. We can neither combine nor build. It is
not in us to produce the pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of
a product. We are helpless, meaningless, messageless.';
But it is not so with the former. They are not a chaos.
They are not loose, unrelated, and incapable. They are
rich in potencies and relationships, and can build up and
produce upon the most magnificent scale and with the
most brilliant results. And therefore they are not to be
degraded to the level of the latter, as if they spake the
same empty speech. They are not as they, helpless and
useless, and therefore are not meaningless and messageless.
They mean largely. They are charged with the grandest
of messages. They shine with a light whose source
cannot be mistaken, a light which can only proceed from
mind, and which only mind can interpret, but whose
meaning the simplest intelligence can easily recognise.
They speak with a clearness and force to cure deafness.
They do not cry out and shout and roar as the hurricane,
the earthquake, and the fire. They speak in a still small
voice, but in tones so distinct and so divine, as to make
him who hath a hearing ear wrap his face in a mantle.

102 THE CREATION OF MATTER

They say : " A divine mind is in all our work, and on our
every atom. The Only Wise made us, and clothed us
with ordered potencies and adjusted relationships, and all
our fitnesses for the work we do, the structures we build
up, and the life we yield. We are His servants, the
work of His hand."

Haeckel puts forward what he calls his great carbon

theory of life. He ascribes to this substance the chief

potencies by which life is generated and the organisations

of the world built up. Carbon he supposes to be so

marvellously endowed as to be capable of quickening,

moulding, and fashioning all things that are quickened,

moulded, and fashioned. Carbon is the true fountain of

vitality, and does all things that have been ascribed to a

wonder-working God. Carbon is God. But if carbon be

God there are gods many indeed. One atom of carbon

would be impotent. It could accomplish nothing. It

depends on the existence of another, and another, and

others innumerable. It depends on finding them like

itself, characterised by its own properties, possessing its

own high endowments, by which it can work its wonders.

It also depends on its finding materials with which to

build, on its finding side by side with it, in its sphere

and within range of its influence, atoms of oxygen,

hydrogen, and nitrogen. Innumerable carbon atoms

must exist, innumerable master-builders, and these must

find the vastest quantities of three other substances, the

vastest multitudes of individual atoms, and all and every

one so measured and adjusted to themselves in many

minutest respects, that they can lay hold of them, mould,

and fashion, and build them up into complex forms, and

in these give birth to life and its marvels. The amount

of dependence of carbon in this work ascribed to it is

enormous. Instead of being an entity absolutely in-

LIFE— PROTOPLASM 103

dependent and clothed with power capable of the greatest
things, it is rather infinitely dependent, dependent on
chances to which there is no number. Carbon cannot
account for the world of life. Carbon must itself be
accounted for. In like manner it is evident that hydro-
gen cannot account for it, that oxygen cannot, nitrogen
cannot. To yield the earth and its life demands the
existence of all these elements in multitudes so multi-
tudinous and ordered that we are compelled to look
outside themselves for the wisdom and power that have
fitted them for their work.

This theory brings into strongest relief the force of the
arguments for the creation of the elements. It shows
the riches of order and potency that must be in carbon
in order to its being equal to the accomplishment of tasks
so high. It is compelled to speak of carbon as if it were
a unity, intelligent and powerful, and therefore could
easily act as one, do brilliant work in the sphere of mind,
and produce gems of organisation, as if it could easily
seek and find and bring other substances into its service,
and employ them to build up unities of the most complex
nature. But carbon is not a unity. It is made up of
particles the smallest, of numbers the vastest. And
many cannot of themselves act as one unless there be
concert among them, and intelligence to produce the
concert. The most extravagant imagination cannot
ascribe high intelligence to carbon atoms, cannot dream
of affirming that they take counsel together to produce
harmonious action. Neither is there in their midst king,
or queen, or leader, or commander, or guide. And yet
the shout of a king is among them, the sound of the
goings of a king of kings in the realm of mind is in
their operations. In their vast multitudes they are as if
perfectly led, commanded, and guided. They move and

104 THE CREATION OF MATTER

march as if to music. They spring into their own places
with unfailing accuracy, find and lay hold of their related
molecules, and moulding and fashioning them according
to their will, build up structures the most complex and
beating with the pulses of life. The unity of action and
greatness of mind revealed in their action is exceeding
wonderful. And not being in and of themselves, it must
be on and from outside of them. The atoms must be
made by mind for their work. They are formed and
measured in their every characteristic with matchless
accuracy. The samenesses in them are of extraordinary
fineness and richness. The potencies enabling them to
build up and put together the many parts of the proto-
plasmic machine are marvellous in the highest degree,
and must have in them balancings of forces and adjust-
ments to the other kinds of molecules of the most
exquisite nature. The potencies that enable them in the
protoplasmic forms to give birth to the springs of life
place them far in front of and above other atoms, make
them the chiefest glory of a transcend ently glorious
universe. The collocation therefore in centres so small,
in numbers so vast, of the same measured powers, so
peculiar and so high, forms an evidence of the presence
and action of mind of overwhelming force. Atoms
having in them not only the power of combining with
other atoms, but also the amazing properties that enable
them to build up protoplasmic structures, and originate
in them the throbbings of vitality, cannot but have their
existence due to one glorious mind, who knew what was
being produced in each atom, who understood the great
and ordered work required of it, and what was necessary
to be put into it, in order that it might be equal to its
performance.

It follows that its colleague elements were made for it

LIFE — PROTOPLASM 105

If the contention on behalf of carbon be true, if it be
endowed with the characteristics to which is due the
kindling of life's spark, yet is it helpless standing alone.
It can do nothing without hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
These must also be specially endowed for the high qualities
with which carbon is favoured, in order that they may
be able to call them forth. Chlorine cannot take the
place of hydrogen, iodine cannot act for oxygen, phos-
phorus cannot play the part of nitrogen; neither can
one of the three be substituted for any of its fellows.
Hydrogen, and hydrogen alone, but its every atom, has
properties able to render to royal carbon the aid required
at its hand. Oxygen and nitrogen, and they only, but
every atom of each existing, can minister help to the
divine element after their fashion; and all three are
needed. Oxygen by itself, however willing and ready for
fervours, could not have rescued the qualities of its exalted
superior from lying eternally dormant. Hydrogen could
not, nitrogen could not; no two by their utmost efforts
could have advanced it more than a step in the direction of
its goal. All three must put forth their strength in many
ways, in order that the springs of life may be opened.
It was impossible that by chance there should be so great
a number of carbon atoms found by each other, endowed
according to the demands made on them by this theory.
It was impossible that, by chance, carbon should have
found as many atoms of one element, if that had been
sufficient for it, measured and adapted for its require-
ments, as would have made a single living globule ; but
what shall we say of the impossibility of multitudinous
atoms of carbon finding multitudes without number, not
of one element only and its contributions in aid, but of
three, and each atom of them so endowed that, after
forming combinations and organisations, it should be

io6 THE CREATION OF MATTER

enabled to rise to the heights of vital activity. Is it not
clear, therefore, that oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen
have been made, and their properties adapted for those
of carbon ?

On the other hand, if the life-yielding potencies be
divided among two or three, or equally among the four,
elements, and all have equally important parts to play,
the division among the greater number of elements or
kinds of atoms, the distribution among them of exactly
the same amount of potency, or proportion, or kind of
potency, required a nicety of discrimination only to be
found in an understanding and perceiving nature of
inconceivable power, required a greater intelligence than
even the concentration of them in one of the kinds.

A certain temperature is also necessary to the existence
of life. There are forms which can sustain very low
temperatures, which can bear the cold of the Arctic
regions; there are algae which have been found in hot
springs of a high temperature. Life is for the most part
possible within very narrow limits of heat and cold.
Heat in the molecules is a form of motion. Had there
been no such motions, life would not have been ; had the
motions been all and always beyond a certain number —
and they might have been far beyond it — life would have
been impossible. Its existence on the earth, therefore,
depends on the number of heat motions being executed
by the molecules of matter. These must not go above
a certain amount; they must not go below a certain
amount. The limits are comparatively narrow; their
heat depends on their relationship to the ether, on the
energy they receive from it, and through it from the sun.
It is not enough, in order to obtain the least globule of
protoplasm, to have a sufficiency of atoms specially
ordered for its formation. There must be sufficient to

LIFE— PROTOPLASM 107

form the sun also. And as necessary is the ether, as
necessary are its properties, and measures, and forms of
action, and adjustments. We have thus a fifth element
introduced, differing widely from carbon, oxygen, hydro-
gen, and nitrogen, and yet accurately measured for them,
and adjusted to them, in such a way and measure of
action, as to come to their aid and enable them to build,
beat, and live. These molecules were therefore made
for the ether, and the ether for the molecules. Thus,
if we take into account the contingencies in the four
chemical elements, in their possessing characteristics
fitting them for being built into the combinations and
complexities of the structure, that yield protoplasmic life,
the necessity that it and all matter connected with it
should have a certain number of heat motions, and not go
beyond a certain number, that there should be an ether,
differing widely from molecules, and yet adjusted to
them, so as to convey heat motions from the sun, — in these
things we surely have facts that ought not to be capable
of being misunderstood.

If a life element be postulated, if, in addition to the
molecules and ether, another entity of a higher nature
exist, the multitude of contingencies is not diminished,
the evidence for the operation of mind loses nothing of
its force. In this case every atom of the four elements
is not only measured and adjusted to every other atom
and to the ether, but to an additional vital element ; and
the vital element is measured and adjusted to them, so as
to be capable of taking hold of them and building them
up into a complex life structure. The vital element is in
its nature far apart from the atoms and ether. Its pro-
perties are peculiarly its own. Its specialties and modes
of operation are strikingly singular. And yet in its
every characteristic it is measured for action on the

io8 THE CREATION OF MATTER

compounds of four material elements in their every
molecule ; and for association with the action of the ether
at every point, it is measured for building up the elements
into the complex life structure, and they show themselves
prepared to enter its service and obey its every behest.
It is evident, therefore, that by the introduction of an
additional entity, the force of the argument for molecules
and ether and vital element being made by intelligence
remains in the fulness of its force.

vin

CELLS AND OEGANISATIONS

Cells — Their Construction, Multiplication, and Modification —
Egg-Cells — The Building up of Animal Forms — Greatness of
the Work— Mind in it— Wealth of Order in the Cells.

THE simplest living forms consist of globules of proto-
plasm. The next in the ascending scale are cells. They
are made of an outer substance, in a state between the
fluid and the solid, and an inner called the nucleus, which
is more solid than the first. Both are albuminous in
their nature. They are the two essentials in the consti-
tution of cells. They take in fatty particles, crystals,
colouring matter, and various substances ; but these are
not necessary to their peculiar powers of action. The
cells of plants have, besides, generally a membrane as a
wall enclosing them.

When the various parts of plants and animals are
examined, they are found to consist of cells. The grass
of the field, the leaves of the forest, the flowers of the
garden, and the fruits of the orchard are built of cells.
The flesh and blood and bones of animals are composed
of the same elemental forms. Nerve cells are specially
complex in their nature. The ganglion cells of the
brain surpass in complexity, and are magnificent adapta-
tions for their work.

There are many one-celled organisms, as the amoebee,
desmids, diatoms, etc. They are found principally in

no THE CREATION OF MATTER

fresh water, but also in the sea, and even in moist earth.
Some have the power of pushing out the protoplasm at
any point in finger-like processes, and by means of these
they move about. Sometimes they are a mere round
ball, while at others they are surrounded by processes
which they have thrust out. In certain circumstances,
if there be impurity in the water, they become encased in
a protecting membrane. At any point in their body
they can take in food, and so increase and grow. By
and by they separate gradually into two halves; these
again feed, increase, divide, and so the multiplication
goes on. In amoebae and kindred forms, we thus have
single cells enjoying and performing the functions of
animal life.

(1) Cells consist of protoplasm with a nucleus. — In
them the centre is differentiated from the circumference.
The outer substance is a machine of great complexity,
built up in one way. The nucleus is a machine of great
complexity, built up in a somewhat different way. Each
cell is formed of myriads of particles ; there are in each
innumerable adjustments, balancings, and joinings to-
gether. In the process of evolution, the molecules
reached first one form, and then marched forward to
another and double form. Having made one successful
advance, they hastened to make it still more successful.
Having gained the triumph of producing a structure in
which a tiny life-spring appeared on the field of existence,
as if knowing the promise laid up in a beginning so
wonderful and the loftiness of the heights that might
from it be reached, they proceeded to the production of
an advanced structure on the straight line leading to
those heights; they proceeded to the making of proto-
plasm into stones capable of being built into organisations,
in which life might flow in rivers and streams. Single

CELLS AND ORGANISATIONS in

atoms impress us ; combinations are an admiration ; but
protoplasmic cells bear the palm. Mansions of gold,
adorned with rubies and diamonds and all precious stones,
would be a sight to see. Aggregations of gold molecules
are a splendour, ruby and diamond crystals are altogether
lovely, but they are so to the eye of sense. Cells of
which the mansions and temples of life are built up are
splendours and lovelinesses to the eye of the mind ; each
stone is as if centuries of thought had been concentrated
on its plan, as if centuries of care had been spent on its
construction, as if divinest skill and the finest hand had
laboured with enthusiasm in its production, had triumphed
in bringing it to perfection. Kuskin says of Michael
Angelo, that he put into every bit of stone he touched
that which makes the hair stand up and words be few.
How much more may we say, that in a cell is that which,
in him who sees, makes the hair stand up and words die
away ! No words can do justice to it. Dare anyone, then,
affirm that thought never touched it, that skilled finger
never approached it? It was so fortunate an advance.
So much depended on it. It was so fruitful. It prepared
for flights so lofty. It was so necessary. Without it the
origination of life would have been comparatively in vain.
It was too fortunate, too fruitful, too necessary to be due to
anything but a wondrous intelligence advancing steadily
towards, and making it the preparation for, reaching a
glorious goal. Atoms and molecules also, capable of
being developed into it, required to be too richly ordered
and endowed to have their existence ascribed to any
but the same cause.

(2) Cells multiply their kind. — The protoplasm draws
in suitable materials and grows. The nucleus demands of
it its portion. After a certain amount of growth division
takes place. In this manner cells are being produced

ii2 THE CREATION OF MATTER

with ease and profusion over the fields and mountains of
the earth, and in the depths of the sea. Building is
going on incessantly. Molecular life machines are ever
forming. Webs of them are constantly weaving. Their
power of work is superb; they know no weariness, no
hardness in their toil, no need of rest. Their genius
for building is supreme. Laying hold of all suitable
materials, they throw them into their own form. They
collocate them. They make them stand in right relations.
Every molecule is obedient to their call ; every molecule
at their touch springs into the position required of it, and
in that position performs the functions thereof. The
places are many; the molecules and functions many.
The work is great, its nicety exquisite. Its difficulty in
itself is enormous. In short, all the operations are
skilled in the highest degree, and yet are performed as
by a master hand. The invention of cells was a triumph
of thought. The invention of a machine to make them
would have been, if possible, a still greater triumph.
But it is the ideal of invention, that they are so con-
stituted as to be themselves capable of producing their
kind. Every cell made becomes also a maker. It can
not only fill its own place in an organisation and do its
own work, it can provide for another place an instrument
for its work. There are in it arrangements which,
though no doubt simple, must yet be most ingenious,
by which at every point it is enabled to receive suitable
materials, and bring them into its own form ; and so that,
when suitably increased, forces are called into play
through which a division takes place, which leaves two
as perfect as was the one.

(3) Cells are capable of innumerable modifications and
variations. — There is one cell for grass, another for trees,
another for fruits. There is one for the flesh of beasts,

CELLS AND ORGANISATIONS 113

another for that of birds, and another for that of fishes.
There is its own variation for every kind of grass or
tree. There is its special modification for every part of
the animal frame, for flesh and blood, for bones and
nerves. In all things that grow out of the ground, and
in every creature that liveth, in all flora and fauna, the
modifications are countless. The variability is thus most
extensive. Its existence is also of supreme importance,
for upon it depends the variety in the living world. In
the presence of so vast a multitude of variations, of so
wonderful a capacity for yielding differentiations, while
persistently retaining the same general form, we cannot
but be filled with a great admiration. If the matter had
depended on chance, there might not have been a single
variability. The least touch of variation, the feeblest
cause tending to produce it in cells having in them
adjustments so fine, might have destroyed the essential
form. The stability of the first form evolved might have
been such, that the least interference would have broken
it vp. Every additional variability is therefore a new
contingency. And the number of contingencies that the
cells should be capable of variability so extensive is
inexpressible.

If then it be maintained that nothing but matter hath
being in the world, that nothing but molecules and their
properties have part in vital operations, we have in cells
a multitude of contingencies as, that these should be able
to combine and form a structure so extraordinary as to
yield life, that they should have it in them to form the
nucleus, the ganglion cells of the brain, and the amoebae.
It is a natural and eternal impossibility that chance should
have given the multitude of atoms necessary for develop-
ment into cells so numerous and so magnificent. And
when we add to this the power which they have of feed-
8

ii4 THE CREATION OF MATTER

ing, and dividing, and multiplying their kind, we intro-
duce additional contingencies. There might have been
cells formed without the power of feeding and growing.
They might have fed, and swelled, and remained one, or
burst into useless fragments. In the midst of countless
possibilities, it is very wonderful that the atoms should
be so constituted, and the forces in the molecules so
balanced, as in all respects to be favourable for producing
the results that lead to consequences of the grandest
nature.

Egg-cells. — In these we have a third advance and
the greatest. In them the molecules have shown that
they have in them the power of crowning their
triumphant march, of producing organisations of the
greatest complexity. Ordinary cells are builders, these
are architects and master-builders. Ordinary cells are
soldiers, these are generals, raising and marshalling
armies. Other cells are individuals, doing what lieth
to their hand. These are kings, producing, varying,
giving law to and determining the operations of the
millions of their children. They consist of protoplasm
and a nucleus. The protoplasm is called the yelk, the
nucleus, the germinal vesicle. These are the essential
parts. In animals the egg of the female generally grows
by the addition of protoplasm, or egg yelk, and is
surrounded by a protecting membrane, and in birds by
a calcareous shell. It is one of the largest cells, not
being really one cell. The male sperm cell, on the other
hand, is one of the smallest. It has an exceedingly
small body, with an oblong nucleus and a comparatively
long vibrating filament attached to it. It is characterised
by a very peculiar quick movement called the spermatozoic
movement.

Sperm ovules and egg-cells unite and form a parent

CELLS AND ORGANISATIONS 115

cell. It feeds and grows, divides and multiplies, into 2,
into 4, into 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, or as in mammalia
and amphibian eggs, into 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64,
96, 160. A globular mass of cells is constructed called
the mulberry germ. By and by there is an inversion of
the cells. At one point they begin to sink, and a cup
is formed. At the same time the inner ones become
rounder, the outer longer — the latter also smaller and
more numerous and darker. The protoplasm of the
cells differs. Chemical, physical, and morphological
changes are produced, and thus differentiation, which
plays so important a part, begins. This is the process
in the lower animal forms. In the higher the processes
are somewhat different, but in all different layers of cells
are produced, distinguished by different characteristics.
The two germ layers next multiply into four, which
assume the shape of a tube. They are called the skin
sensory layer, the skin fibrous, the intestinal fibrous, the
intestinal glandular. According to Haeckel — I. The skin
sensory layer produces (1) the outer skin, and in the
higher vertebrates the hair, nails, and the sweat and
sebaceous glands; (2) the central nerve system, and
the medullary or spinal canal. During the development
of the individual, it moves gradually inward, so that at
length it is situated internally, surrounded by muscles
and bones and other parts. The primitive kidney is also
probably from it. It eventually takes a deeper place
within the body. II. The second, or skin fibrous layer,
yields (1) the leather skin, the firm fibrous covering
which contains the nerves and blood-vessels of the skin ;

(2) the great masses of the muscles of the whole trunk ;

(3) the inner skeleton, which is specially characteristic of
vertebrates, the articulated vertebral column, also all the
bones, cartilages, and ligaments, which form the vertebral

u6 THE CREATION OF MATTER

skeleton; (4) the cell layer, which forms the inner
covering of the body wall. III. The third or intestinal
fibrous layer develops (1) the endoccelar, or layer of cells
covering the outer surface of the whole intestine; (2)
the heart and the great blood-vessels of the body, the
great blood channels or arteries going from the heart, the
great veins passing to the heart as well as the blood
itself; (3) the muscular tube of the intestines, i.e. the
whole of those fibrous and fleshy parts which form the
outer part of the intestinal canal, as well as the mesentery,
the thin fibrous membrane by which the intestinal canal
is connected with the ventral side of the vertical column.
IY. The fourth or intestinal glandular layer gives the
intestinal cellular covering, with the lungs, liver, salivary,
and other glands.

Thus do egg-cells accomplish great things. They feed,
they increase in size. They divide. They multiply.
They advance in certain directions, and build up typical
forms. They bend, they differentiate. They form two
layers, they form four layers. They take up in each
layer at each point the measure and kind of food they
need for their special place and work. They begin to
weave their respective parts and tissues. They advance
steadily. Each part builds up, and in a marvellous
manner collocates, the portion of the fabric required of
it until the whole is completed.

Consider here (1) the greatness of the work the ovules
perform. The burden laid on them is overwhelmingly
heavy. The structures they have to raise are, we are
ready to say, of a complexity requiring infinite care and
skill. The bodies of a dog, an ox, a horse, a man are
magnificent. Their systems of bones and joints, of
muscles and nerves, of flesh and blood, of internal organs
and external senses, their general strength and power

CELLS AND ORGANISATIONS 117

of motion, the perceptive power and intelligence they
manifest, form an astounding outcome from the tiniest of
sources. In the processes of building the advances are
numerous, the number of stages is great, the amount of
differentiation is enormous, the minuteness of the various
kinds of cells, their fineness and suitableness, their
differentiation taking place at the right point in the
right manner, exhibit to us phenomena the most amazing.
And yet as far as science sees, the characteristics and
energies by which results so varied and on so great a
scale are produced, are laid up in the ovules. In them
are concentrated the wonders that develop into the
animal. There must be in each sperm and ovule
relations of form, there must be relations of sperm to
ovule, there must be such a placing and balancing of
forces, that in a suitable environment each kind cannot
but operate and advance, and differentiate and build,
until it builds up its own proper organisations. There
must be in them a constitution measured in all its parts,
adjusted for the production of every advance and
differentiation, for making them at the right moment,
at the right point. In this work the egg-cells do every-
thing which we naturally and necessarily ascribe to mind.
They select, they measure, they shape, they collocate, they
adapt, they adjust.

They select from nourishment the right materials for
flesh and blood, and skin and bones, and muscles and
nerves, for heart and brain, for liver and lungs. Their
is selection on a large scale, and requiring the nicest dis-
crimination. They measure. The sizes of all structures
are carefully attended to. The length and thickness, the
fineness and strength, of the various fibres are accurately
determined. A law of symmetry is beautifully observed.
Corresponding parts are built up of the same size, and

u8 THE CREATION OF MATTER

different parts are proportioned to each other. They
shape. What artist can approach them in many of their
fashionings? They collocate. With unerring accuracy
they set every fibre and organ in its own place,
every part of fibre and organ at its own point. How
many and how marvellous are the collocations, in the
eye, the ear, the hand, yea throughout the whole body.
There are ten thousand such. They adapt. They adapt
organisations for their functions. They build them up of
such materials, shapes, and activities as are suitable for
the peculiar work they have to perform. They adjust.
They adjust fibre to fibre. They fit bone to bone. They
bind fibre to fibre, bone to bone, in the most suitable
way, by the most simple and skilful means. They thus
act as from minute and perfect knowledge of each frame.
They know and unerringly recognise every stage they
have reached. They know and unerringly recognise, at
every stage they have reached, what is next to be done.
They act as from a knowledge of the body, which
anatomists and surgeons might well envy in the case of
the human frame, which their splendid labours and
assiduous studies have never enabled them to reach.
The amount of selecting, measuring, shaping, collocating,
adapting, and adjusting which falls to them to do
cannot be made too much of. The amount of know-
ledge, foresight, discrimination, imagination required is
such as no architect ever dreamed of possessing. Where,
then, is the knowledge laid up? Where is the intelli-
gence possessing it, and endowed with the power of
turning it to account? Carbon saith, It is not in me.
Hydrogen saith, It is not in me. Oxygen, nitrogen, and
all elements, protoplasm and protoplasmic ovules protest,
It is not in us. All with one voice confess that they
know not, neither do they understand. They know not

CELLS AND ORGANISATIONS 119

what they do. They understand not the processes they
carry on. They are unconscious of the brilliancy of the
work they perform. They possess no knowledge, practise
no foresight, exercise neither discrimination nor imagina-
tion. They select not, measure not, shape not, of their
own mind. Where, then, is the wisdom to be found,
and where is the place of understanding? Where, but
in an eternal mind to whom belongeth knowledge and
whose understanding is infinite.

(2) Consider the ovules. In whatever way these ovules
are formed, what can we say of them but that they are
works of infinite art? They are gems of construction.
They are matchless marvels of likeness and differentiation.
They are triumphs of concentration. They are, if possible,
greater wonders than the bodies they construct. The
potencies and arrangements necessary to the building up
of each living creature are laid up in them in innumer-
able minutest points. In the case of the simplest organi-
sations the ovules are doubtless proportionally simple.
As the organisations increase in complexity, the ovules,
which build them, must be increasingly complex, and
have a greater wealth of order and potency stored in
them. Were it possible to arrange in a line all the
ovules of the animal world, beginning with the simplest
and going on to the most complex, they would form a
long and incomparable series. There are millions of
them, and every individual is seen in the light of the
work it performs to be a transcendent wonder. The mind
revels in considering and imagining the wealth and
perfection of forms and the balancings of forces in them.
The intellect exults as it recognises order so dazzling.
To its eye ovules are, as we have said, kings. They sit
on thrones. A halo of royal potency is on them. The
splendour of the greatest chef-d'ceuvres, of the most

120 THE CREATION OF MATTER

brilliant sculptures and works of artist hands of all the
ages, is lustreless in comparison with the imperial order
that shines in them, the imperial potencies stored in
them. They have in their form, as revealed by the skill
and power of their operations, incomparably more to
transport the mind than the choicest gems in the sphere of
art. And it is the amount of order concentrated in them,
concentrated and differentiated into so great a multitude
of varieties, the amount we dare to say of mind that
shines in organisations so complex, that pleases mind.
It sees its own image in them in supremest manifestation.
It beholds the greatest triumphs in its own kind of work.
It perceives that there are in them measurings, and
adjustments, and settings, and touches of art, that belong
to a higher heaven of invention than any to be found in
works from the hands of human genius.

No sane intelligence would dream of the simplest
house being built, without eyes, and an understanding,
to see and measure. And no house, however large,
however many its rooms, chambers, and passages, and
however fine its workmanship throughout, can be com-
pared with ovules in themselves, or the bodies which
they build. And it is no sufficient explanation, it is
overwhelmingly insufficient, to say that the work is
accomplished by forces in the elements. The scientist
may see nothing else with the eye of science. He con-
fines himself to the study of the processes which he can
explain by physical means. He sometimes refuses to go
deeper. But deeper questions cannot be legitimately
ignored. Every scientist, as in the case of the ether,
is ready to ask any question, however deep, if it can be
answered by referring to or postulating physical entities
or causes. He only refuses to ask them, if in order to
give the answer it becomes necessary to postulate the

CELLS AND ORGANISATIONS 121

existence of a nature other than physical, an entity of a
higher order than material. But the true and complete
scientific spirit requires us to demand for phenomena of
every kind a suitable and sufficient explanation according
to its kind. The phenomena of light and heat, borne
from the sun to the earth, carried through spaces where
ordinary matter exists not, require of us that we acknow-
ledge the existence of an element suitable for conveying
them, an element possessing properties such as can
explain the phenomena. We cannot see the ether. We
cannot feel it. We cannot perceive it as in the case of
ordinary matter. But its activities in yielding light and
heat make its existence and chief characteristics clearly
and certainly known. And so, though we cannot per-
ceive by any of our senses the mind that is at work in
the midst of and producing nature's wonders, that is no
reason why we should not admit its presence, if, as in
the case of the ether, we see signs of its action. We
ourselves are not wholly material beings, bundles of
material forces. We are more mental. In us the
greatest thing is mind, the greatest and most outstanding.
By our mind we understand physical work, and that,
when physical work is done, it must have a cause. We
understand mental work also, we can recognise its signs,
and that where these are mind must be or must have
been. And we cannot but ask an account of the order
and marvellous amount of adjustment and intricacy of
adjustment in ovules and organised bodies. The pheno-
mena are there. They are altogether of the kind which
mind produces. They evidence themselves by the senses
to the intelligence. They are as real and certain as those
which proclaim the presence of light and heat and tell of
the ether. They are light. They shine with surpassing
splendour. They dazzle. They astound. And they are

122 THE CREATION OF MATTER

not lying about as if they had existed in the same con-
dition from eternity. They come into being. They
cease to be. They are perpetually appearing, disappear-
ing, and reappearing. The earth is a vast factory cease-
lessly producing triumphs of art. There is the same
activity of present operation as in the case of light and
heat. They must therefore have a cause in harmony
with their nature, operating in some way, at some point.
What nature then can yield such phenomena, can so
brilliantly measure and adjust, build up and organise?
It is as necessary to postulate a nature that can do these
things as one that can carry light and heat. It does not
belong to blind matter and its forces to work of them-
selves in this fashion. They are not of the nature to do
so. The nature acting must be determined by, must of
necessity correspond with, the phenomena. It must be
mental. The phenomena are, we say, the phenomena of
mind, the signs are of its presence and action.

The activities of ovules and protoplasmic cells are
endlessly rich and varied. They carry on their operations
with transcendent skill, as if possessed of intelligence of
inconceivable power. There is no work like unto their
work, no masonry, no weaving and fashioning like theirs.
Their every step is as if they were guided by the per-
fection of wisdom. In their action there are many
physical forces playing a part, showing their respective
characteristics. We can perceive them. We can deter-
mine their nature. When we see signs of their presence
we do not hesitate to affirm that they are there. For
physical phenomena evidently manifested, a suitable and
sufficient cause must be found. And are we not as much
bound to seek a suitable and sufficient cause for pheno-
mena as real and far surpassing them in brilliancy ? The
phenomena with which we are dealing are not few and

CELLS AND ORGANISATIONS 123

faint and feeble, having only a semblance of order, a sug-
gestion of an intelligent hand. They are many as the sand
that is on the seashore. They are of immeasurable clear-
ness, perfection, and force. They are the most striking of
their kind that exist. They are the most striking of any
kind found in the natural world. There are none that
can vie with them, none that are not feebleness beside
them. They are so brilliantly clear, so forcibly striking,
that they compel us to have respect unto them, to ac-
knowledge their transcendent splendour, to stand in awe
and sin not against their majesty, to seek for them an
origin worthy of their rank, a parent corresponding to
them in nature and kind, a cause of their being of
their own loftiness, and to be found within their own
realm. And to what do we naturally ascribe them ? Of
what are wealth of order and complexity of adjustments
and organisations the natural signs? Are they not
the natural signs of mind? Are they not the highest
rank and fashion among its children, the aristocracy, yea,
the royal race among its sons? They are not as the
arrow flints and axes, from which geologists do not
hesitate to draw conclusions. They are not even as
the greatest works of human genius. They surpass
them, and are more widely separated from them in
glory than they are from flint arrows and stone axes.
Yea, it seems as if He who made all things determined
to put into them a wealth of order and signs of mind
such as might render it impossible for mistake to be
made. Nothing conceivable or inconceivable save mind
can have produced phenomena so transcendent in
brilliancy, so infinite in force.

IX

THE PERCEIVING AND PERCEIVED NATURES

The Senses— The Brain— The Elements in it— A Special Ele-
ment — Union to the Brain, Perfect, Stable, of Unlike
Natures — Correspondences in Perception ; Many, Varied —
Power of the Perceiving Nature — Many such Natures —
Sensations caused by Numbered Motions.

THERE are perceiving natures. We are conscious of
possessing perceptive power, conscious each one of our
being as exercising it. We know, and our own existence
is not more certain than that we see, and hear, and
smell, and taste, and touch.

There are phenomena perceived. There are colours,
sounds, tastes, smells, and the sensations of touch. The
existence of material substance may be denied, but it is
impossible not to acknowledge that there are phenomena.

Through our perceptive power we become acquainted
with a universe rich in beauty and grandeur, and
crowded with objects of intellectual interest. By day
the sun shines in his strength, lights up the earth, and
robes it in a garment of many - coloured loveliness.
Sunrisings and sunsettings charm by their dawning and
waning softness, and kindle an enthusiasm of admiration
of their hues on hills and clouds. By night the moon
walks in fairness, or the stars sparkle in brightness. By
day and night the beautiful blue sky, most majestical of
canopies, looks down on us. Mountains rise to varying

124

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 125

and sublimest heights, mantled in green, purple, and
white. Valleys and plains are clad in verdure many
tinted, are clothed with corn, are watered in blue and
silver and gold. Living forms lie or walk, run or fly.
Great is the extent of view, multitudinous the objects,
which the eye from a mountain top can command. By
the ear we become acquainted with a wealth of sound.
Every object struck yields its own variety. Every living
creature has its own cry or note. Beautiful, noble, and
sometimes thrilling are the tones of the human voice in
speech and song. Entrancing are the great compositions
which musical instruments are made to render. By day
the lark captivates the listening ear. The song of the
nightingale is by night seasoned to its right praise and
true perfection. Sweetly smell the rose and the briar,
flowers many, shrubs many. Festal to the taste are
fruits, and foods without number.

When the things perceived are investigated by the
intellect, many facts and laws are learned regarding
them. In every perception of the objects of the exter-
nal world, there is the action of the material elements,
of the bodily organs, which form the machinery of com-
munication, and of the perceiving nature. In the case
of the two former it consists in forms of motion. Light
and colour phenomena have their origin in the sun.
Heat of tremendous intensity, molecular motions, com-
pared with which whirlwinds are calmness, agitate a great
ether sea, dash it against solid particles in the flames,
and generate light vibrations. These are transverse, and
at every point vary in numbers from under four hundred
billions to nearly eight hundred billions per second.
According to the numbers of the motions in the mole-
cules which they strike on the earth are the numbers
of vibrations forwarded from them to the eye, and the

126 THE CREATION OF MATTER

colour impressions made. Reaching the eye in numbers
far beyond any that can be numbered, they enter it in
perfect order. The eye is a little round ball. In it are
two lenses filled with crystalline liquids, and many
arrangements for effective working. At its back are the
retina and nerves, which pass to the brain and convey
the motions to it.

In sound perceptions there are the motions generated
by blows, voices, and instruments. These are carried by
the air, and enter the ear. The ear has many parts.
There is the canal, the drum membrane, a cavity within
it, surrounded by bones, and filled with air, which is
renewed by a tube passing to the pharynx. Further
inward are a hammer, an anvil, and a stirrup, a second
membrane and labyrinth filled with liquid, in which are
nerves in many thousands running to the brain. Sound
waves enter by the canal, strike the membrane, and
agitate the air within. By it the hammer is made to
strike the anvil, the anvil the stirrup, the stirrup the
second drum, and so the motions are communicated to
the liquid within, and from it pass along the nerves to
the brain.

Thus also through their organs do the motions reach
the brain, which cause the sensations of smell, taste, and
touch.

Among organs the brain is the most complex. It is
the seat of perception and all mental energy. Without
its suitable action, consciousness in the body is impos-
sible. It is large in size. In man its average weight is
49J ounces, in woman 44. In the surface of the brain
is grey, cortical matter, cellular in form, and closely
connected with mental action. Within is white matter,
consisting of masses of fibres regarded as transmissive.
The ingoing nerves from the senses end in the grey

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 127

matter, amid its nerves and corpuscles. The nerve fibres
of the brain are in hundreds of billions, and there are
cross fibres by which they communicate with each other.
The perceiving nature connected with it receives from it
all its impressions.

In sensations, therefore, motions begin in the external
world, are conveyed by complex organisations to the
brain, and by it to the perceiving nature.

The perceiving nature has no consciousness of the
motions forwarded to it. It does not perceive the
number, distinguish number from number, and so inter-
pret them. It perceives not motions of any kind or
anywhere. To it light motions shine, harmonic motions
make music, those of touch press, those of taste feast,
those of smell regale. The natural result of moving
particles and an active ether is to generate motion in
that on which they act. Here, however, they produce
impressions, which differ, toto coelo, from mere motion.

It is not necessary to our argument to affirm anything
as to the nature of the substratum in which the per-
ceiving nature inheres. Materialists maintain that it is
material, that the molecules of matter in certain forms of
excitation in the brain give birth to the consciousness of
perceiving colours, sounds, tastes, smells, and the sensa-
tions of touch.

We have seen that the elements of matter are revealed
to us as accurately measured in their forces and modes
of action, as carefully and exquisitely adjusted to each
other, as a scene of brilliant order throughout their fields,
and therefore as clearly testifying that they are the work
of mind. And if conscious perceptive power be an evolu-
tion from certain kinds of material particles, it forms
a magnificent addition to the evidence for their being
made. It makes manifest that there must be stored in

128 THE CREATION OF MATTER

the atoms the potencies necessary to the production of
the results. If we thus endow material elements, if
there be in them such characteristics as enable them to
rise to the height of yielding perceiving natures, we
enrich them with riches above what is seen in them in
any or all of the sciences. To what then do they owe
the possession of qualities so high ? How did it happen
that all carbon atoms, those also of hydrogen, oxygen,
and nitrogen existed, having each their own kind of
potency, which enabled them to develop, by combination
and organisation, powers so exalted1? It would be a
phenomenon the strangest if two independent suitable
entities chanced to exist from eternity in a condition and
so adjusted to each other, as that coming together they
should yield one perceiving nature. It would be still
stranger if a number of independent atoms were found
capable of so high a development. It would make
manifest in each such qualities and adaptations, that we
could not believe in them as so existing by chance. But
there are four different kinds of atoms, and there are of
each kind numbers to which the drops of all the seas are
but as fewness itself. And one and all of each kind have
something which, when they are united in a peculiarly
complex chemical union, and built up into the supreme
organisation, yield, in some mode of united action, the
perceiving nature. Every atom of carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen, and nitrogen, if on the earth or in the sun and
stars, has its potency capable of contributing to the result.
These potencies are of a very lofty and special nature.
Here lovelier beams than its diamond crystal knows,
spring from carbon. Here in a combination and organisa-
tion of this and its colleague elements, it is as if a
nightingale's note or grand symphony were to proceed
from a clod of the valley. The same specialty dis-

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 129

tinguishes each kind — the same in nature, rank, and
force. Every atom of carbon has the brilliant carbon
peculiarity or peculiarities. Every atom of oxygen has
the oxygen characteristic, of hydrogen the hydrogen
distinction, of nitrogen the nitrogen potency. In such
part of a single brain organisation as is necessary to
conscious perception, the numbers of each element are
enormous. And every atom has its part to play. From
one and all rays or activities proceed, and these con-
centrating in some inexplicable manner, kindle the
perceiving nature. Whence then similarities so high
and extensive 1 Whence the perfect likenesses of quali-
ties so special and in numbers so vast? Whence the
measuring, and adjusting, and adapting of the character-
istics of four elements, so as to fit into each other, and
be gathered from all parts of the complicated and multi-
tudinous fibres of the brain, and formed into so sublime
a unity ? That potencies so high should be found in a
few atoms of each kind is beyond belief. That all are
distinguished by them, and in every one of the same
element, accurately of the same measure ; and that there
are four qualities, or whatever the numbers may be,
adjusted to each other, and adapted for uniting and
combining, and being organised so as to yield a product
so lofty, no language can express the force with which
chance is excluded, the absoluteness of the impossibility
that anything but a great intelligence could account for
the bringing into being of such phenomena.

That atoms are capable of forming the brain organisa-
tion shows them richly endowed, but they are much
more so if they be the substratum in which the perceiv-
ing nature inheres. They form in the brain compounds
the most complex and fibres in millions. The albuminous
matter of the fibres is highly unstable, is unstable with
9

130 THE CREATION OF MATTER

an exquisitely measured and suitable instability, and fed
by the blood in large quantity ; the decompositions that
are produced, the new combinations that are formed, the
motions that run along fibres, and from fibre to fibre, are
in numbers and kinds, in variety and order, of over-
mastering brilliancy. Great is the work to which they
thus attain. Great are the burdens they bear. Their
responsibilities are such as to require them to be marvels
of constitution. Considering them as ordered only for
the building up of the structure of structures, the crown-
ing organisation of the world, for the part which we
know they play in the operations of our internal nature,
for the execution of the multitudinous motions and
changes which take place in perception, our admiration is
kindled, our wonder inflamed, and we are forced to con-
clude that they are the children of mind. But if we
ascribe to them also the potencies necessary to their
being developed into perceiving natures, still more if we
add the powers of thinking, feeling, and willing, we
increase the burdens laid on them enormously, we require
that there should be in them potencies leaving mechanical
and chemical properties far beneath, and make the atoms
of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen as stars of
glory among their fellow-elements, gems lifted up to the
highest heaven of activity and work, a transcendently
glorious product of divine Intelligence.

On the materialistic theory, indeed, these atoms are
exceedingly marvellous in the character and rank of their
potencies. Nothing is too wonderful for them to do.
They draw to each other. They cling together. They
act chemically. They spring into union, and form many
combinations. They strike each other and other par-
ticles, and strains of music pour from them. The ether,
sun-moved, strikes them, and they glorify it, and send it

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 131

from them glowing with colour, kindled into every
loveliest hue. But, according to materialism, they are
not satisfied with trophies so splendid. They press
onward and upward, They climb to higher and ever
higher work. They build up protoplasmic forms, and
generate protoplasmic life. They construct cells which
put to shame the most brilliant triumphs of human art.
They form organisations that rise above, and outdo the
mightiest triumphs of human genius. They yield per-
ceiving natures and intelligence in the animal creation.
They rise to the exercise of intelligence of the highest
order in man. They climb to heaven. They ascend to
the heights of the Most High. They burn and shine
with heaven's purest thoughts and feelings. They not
only play their part in yielding natural light and heat,
but in the loftiest form of their excitation and motion
they give birth to the beauties and grandeurs, the savours
and odours of perception, to the noblenesses of thought
and the fervours of love. Thus endowed, they are ele-
ments imperial in potency. They are elect atoms. They
are among their fellows as pearls among grains of sand,
diamonds amid bits of glass. There is not one feeble
among them. They are all strong with their own peculiar
strength. There is not one common and low. They are
all capable of rising to ethereal heights of work. There
is not one dark. They are universally illuminated with
the light which breaks forth into the enlightenments
of consciousness. Endowed with potencies so high,
they outshine, each particle of them, millions of atoms
though bright. They are products of mind, of a mind
of transcendent greatness.

It has been maintained that carbon is the chief factor
in yielding life and its powers. It is the atom of atoms,
the elect of the elect, and therefore, as we have seen

132 THE CREATION OF MATTER

before, and now more clearly see, most evidently made.
But the other three elements have relations and nice
adjustments to it, which are necessary to the kindling
of its fires and the calling forth of its activities, and
therefore must also be made for it. Whatever part the
ether also may play, it requires adaptation for it, and the
same conclusion must be drawn as to it.

But the perceiving nature is rather an element by
itself, a form of being of a higher kind than matter, of
a nature corresponding to its powers, and such as would
naturally possess them. The laws of light are widely
separated from those of ordinary matter, and scientists
do not hesitate to postulate the existence of an ether
capable of acting according to them. The laws and
action of the perceiving nature separate it by a gulf
wider far from the atoms of matter and from the ether,
and it is the only philosophic conclusion to which to
come, that it is a nature of a higher kind, an element
corresponding in its essence to the powers it exercises. In
light sensations it is motion that is created in the sun
and ether. Motions fly through the latter to the earth.
Motions rebound from the earth to the eye. Motions
pass through the eye to the retina, and along the nerve
fibres to the brain. Motions are excited in the brain.
But in whatever way they strike the perceiving nature,
they are to it not motions, but light and colour. It has no
consciousness of being stirred to activity of any kind,
but of experiencing these sensations. In like manner,
sound motions, those also of smell and taste and touch,
are so until they reach the brain, and in the brain, but
to the perceiving nature they are sounds, smells, tastes,
and the sensations of touch. The change is entire.
The transformation is complete. The effect produced on
the perceiving nature is altogether different from that on

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 133

any part of the means and instrument of communication,
on any part which we know to be material. There is
no likeness between motion and sensation. There is no
resemblance between vibration and colour. They have
nothing in common. The difference between them may
be said to be infinitely great. Of necessity, therefore,
the entities to which they belong must be as different as
the qualities are different. And as the faculty of per-
ceiving matter in so many of its phases is supplemented
by powers still higher, and if possible more widely
different, we are constrained to conclude that there is in
mysterious association with the brain a nature whose
substratum is not molecular and material, is not of the
nature of the ether, but such as to be denominated
mental or spiritual, corresponding to the powers with
which it is endowed. This nature is most intimately
united to the material form, and through it perceives the
ten thousand wonders of the world.

(1) The union is perfect. — They cleave to each other.
They work together. They co-operate in all operations
as if they were one. The one can do nothing without
the other. Their action is uniformly a combined action.
In the healthy nothing can surpass the perfection of
their harmonious working. They are as a perfect instru-
ment and instrumentalist, as a grand organ and hand of
matchless skill to sound it, from its lowest note to its full
compass, from its simplest tones to its sublimest and
sweetest combinations.

(2) The union is stable. — It is not like that of sub-
stances which the least blow or rise of temperature can
break up. It is as the most stable compounds. It can
continue for threescore and ten, or fourscore, or even a
hundred years. The conscious perceiving nature does
not dart from its place at an unpleasant sight, a harsh

134 THE CREATION OF MATTER

sound, an offensive smell, a nauseous taste, a severe
blow. The lightning perilously near startles ; the thunder
alarms, but does not drive it from its seat. Many tastea
and smells strike it unto immeasurable disgust, but not
unto falling from its throne.

(3) The union is of unlike natures. — The perceiving
nature on the view we now present belongs to a sphere
high above the organ of perception. It has powers high
as heaven above every material element. And yet it is
brought into perfect union with the brain, and they
co-operate with, and minister to, each other as true
yokefellows. Their characteristics meet as at mathe-
matical points. Their properties are measured for each
other, in order to union, with an accuracy as perfect as
those of atom for atom, or of the ether for molecules.
Atoms cling to atoms cohesively and chemically, and
sometimes with exceeding great tenacity. No explana-
tion can be given of the ordered action of these forces,
save that the substances are so adjusted to each other
as to act in this manner, are so adjusted by intelligence.
But far more must we postulate adjustments of the most
extraordinary nature, of the most exquisite perfection,
in order to the possibility of stable union and combined
action of natures so diverse as those of the perceiving
nature and the organ of all perception, and far more must
we ascribe these adjustments to a great understanding.

The correspondences between the two natures. — There
are then two natures — the perceiving and the perceived ;
the subject and the object; the sense power and the
phenomena of matter. All that follows is true, whatever
view may be taken of the nature in which the perceptive
power inheres.

1. These two powers are distinct and independent.
The power of producing impressions is totally different

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 135

from the capacity for receiving them. Perceiving and
being perceived are as at opposite poles.

2. The one does not exist because of the existence of
the other. The perceiving nature does not by an act
of its own will, or the forthputting of its power, call
matter or material phenomena into being, and the per-
ceived qualities do not create the power of perception.
Even materialists cannot affirm that the fact that the one
kind of power or qualities existed rendered it necessary
that the other also should have being ; that the potencies
of matter and of the ether in yielding light, sound, music,
tastes, and odours, created the power of perceiving them.
They might be the means of developing but not of origin-
ating it. It is not, therefore, of necessity that the one
has being because of the existence of the other.

3. From this it inevitably follows that correspondence
between them is not of necessity. It is not of necessity
that there should be in matter its various characteristics,
and side by side with them a perceiving nature, and so
it cannot be of necessity that, in the accidental case of
two such natures existing, there should be any correspond-
ence between them. If they do correspond it must be by
chance or design. If each nature finds its exact correla-
tive in being and by its side, it is not owing to itself, but
to a wonderful coincidence or an intelligent mind.

4. Their correspondences are superlatively remarkable.
The power that lies in material elements to produce in
perceiving natures the sensations of light, colour, sound,
taste, and smell is not a natural one. It is comparatively
natural that molecule should act on molecule, and even
that ether motions should pass over into molecules that
have certain likenesses in action to itself. But the
potencies of making and receiving impressions are much
farther from each other than molecules from molecules,

136 THE CREATION OF MATTER

or molecules from the ether. The latter is separated
from the ordinary forms of matter by the very greatest
differences in the measures of its activities, but its
forces and modes of action are on the same lines.
The perceiving nature, on the other hand, belongs to
a different region altogether from the perceived. Their
properties are not on the same lines ; they are not in the
same plane; they do not lie in the same world. The
effect that passes from material elements to the perceiving
nature is not motion produced. The impression made is
not a continuation of the same kind of action as is in
themselves. The potencies of the two natures are as at
opposite poles, and may be said to be at an infinite
distance from each other. And yet they meet, and the
characteristics of the one fit into the powers of the
other with perfect exactness. They meet as if they were
of the same nature, belonged to the same world, and
showed the same kind of action. They are fitted for
each other as "for the dove its dell, for the swan its
lake," for the bee its honey. The one produces on the
other the most singular and varied effects, beams on it
with light and colour, streams on it in sounds and har-
monies, delights it with tastes and odours. The per-
ceiving nature is exquisitely adjusted to the perceived,
and the perceived to the perceiving. The perceived,
advancing from afar, strikes the perceiving, as it were, in
its centre, strikes it unto amazing and pleasurable excita-
tion. The motions of matter and of the ether are found
capable of springing across the widest of gulfs, of mount-
ing upwards to the loftiest heights, of making a nature
far above them their aim and reach, of rising to it on
strong wing as if divinely raised and supported, and of
producing on it the most magnificent and charming
impressions. They are found capable of acting not on

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 137

each other only, but of ministering to beings of a higher
order than their own, of creating not motions alone, but
the most marvellous sensations. To the contemplative
mind, dwelling on, and alive to, the inexpressible won-
derfulness of the exactness of the meeting of two natures
so diverse, the exquisiteness of the adjustment to each
other of entities so widely apart, the ineffable beauty
with which the one, passing over an immeasurable space,
acts on the other, kindles splendours for it, makes music
to it, exhilarates and feasts it, it seems the most impossible
of all things that anything but a divine intelligence can
account for such phenomena.

5. Their action is perfect. Seeing, hearing, tasting,
smelling are performed in a manner which nothing can
excel. The clearness and cleanness of all sensations in
persons of healthy constitution are crystalline. Beholding
an extensive prospect, no blanks appear, no blotches
offend. There is no dimness of vision. There is in
ordinary circumstances nothing dazzling and intolerable.
Light is sweet to the eye, and it is a pleasant thing to
behold the sun. Who can paint like nature. Colours
are set before us with a perfection which reaches the
suprernest beauty. Not a flower blooms but shows
touches, hues, streaks, and stains that make manifest
the hand from which they come, the mind to which
their tasteful loveliness is due. There is no dulness in
sounds nor ordinarily anything of an overpowering nature.
The vast multitude are possessed of a sense of hearing, to
which common sounds are splendidly distinct. Music
knows tones the grandest and sweetest. When a great
instrumentalist, instrument, and orchestra render the
masterpieces of genius, perceptive natures listening are
regaled by cluster on cluster of harmonies, in which
neither blank nor discord finds a place. Balmy and

138 THE CREATION OF MATTER

refreshing odours delight the sense of smell, delicious
tastes the tongue and palate. Only in age are sensations
enfeebled, showing what might have been, and that it
might easily have been impossible for any sensation to
be developed. Everywhere in the ether and air which
carry light and sound, in the instruments of conveyance,
and in the perceptive power, the action is perfect. No-
where in the strong is there the least disorder, the least
intrusion of chaos. Vast multitudes of independent ele-
ments have part in every sensation, and yet the result
is the very ideal of work matchlessly devised, perfectly
achieved.

6. The correspondences are many. There are in the
perceiving nature not one but five or more senses, and,
corresponding to them, an inexhaustible variety of
characteristics in matter. These senses are widely apart,
and as far separated are the material characteristics. No
faculties can less resemble each other than those which
operate through the eye, the ear, the nostrils, the palate.
Colours and sounds are wholly unlike, and both differ as
much from taste and smell. The perceiving powers are
so widely apart that there can be no absolute necessity
that they should be bound together in the same bundle,
that they should be conjoined in the same substratum.
The characteristics of matter are so separated from each
other that there can be no necessity that they should
exist side by side in the same molecules, that there should
be in them the power of acting in five different ways on
the perceiving nature.

There might also have been perceiving natures differing
from those with which we are endowed. The range of
possibility is infinite. The number of might-have-beens
knows no limits. We cannot conceive any kinds save
those of which we have experience, but we cannot hesi-

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 139

tate to acknowledge the possibility of their existence.
And, a priori, there was as much probability that any
other possibles should exist as that they should. There
might therefore have been perceptive powers, and none of
our present system among them. There might have been
innumerable conjunctions of twos, or threes, or fives, and
all different. And in like manner there might have been
as great variety of differences in the qualities of matter.
There might have been a perceiving nature possessed of
one sense, and nothing to produce any impression upon
it, or many senses and nothing to affect them. There
might have been countless systems of perceptive powers
and countless systems of material properties, and no
correspondence of any kind, or anywhere between them
— the perceptive powers and material properties being
at an immeasurable distance from each other's range.
And yet the system existing has five perceptive powers,
and the material elements have properties suited to them
all. They are so far apart from each other, the possi-
bilities of existence of different senses are so countless,
the range of possibility in material motions is so unlimited,
that for the latter to be capable of producing a single
sensation in one sense involved chances against it above
all numbers. That there should be two senses and
motions of one kind corresponding to each was much
farther from probability, but that in the same perceiving
nature there should be five senses and motions in the
same matter corresponding to each and all, was absolutely
impossible as the result of chance.

But for each sense there is not only one sensation but
many. Those afforded by the power of vision and colour
are multitudinous. By the eye we perceive red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. There are also of
these a great many combinations, a vast variety of tints

i4o THE CREATION OF MATTER

and hues. To the eye they are distinct. They are en-
tirely different sensations. They are easily discriminated.
A perceptive power capable of perceiving the constituents
might have heen incapable of seeing a distinctive hue
resulting from their combination. By the ear we perceive
a variety of sounds. Every object struck has, we have
seen, its own clang- tint. The human voice and instruments
yield a myriad differences in speech and song and musi-
cal compositions. And every variety, every different
impression made, requires differences in the motions for-
warded, and a distinct feature in the perceptive power, a
distinct measure of capacity of being acted on, in order
to the impression being made. We might have had a
nature capable of being affected by, and such as should
distinguish impressions made by, two or three varieties
and combinations of sound, and not necessarily by more,
but the number is very great. Great also is the variety
of tastes. It is said that if one were to taste five hundred
wines, no two would be found exactly alike. And so
the number of distinguishable tastes must be very great.
Many also are the different odours.

Sensations differ in intensity. — In the case of any colour
it may begin at the faintest and rise to the deepest dye.
It is in one object so feeble that we can with diffi-
culty recognise it. In another it is glaring or dazzling.
Between the extremes there are many degrees. Our
perceptive power thus operates within a certain range.
It might have been much smaller or much larger. It
might have been limited to its present medium and a few
degrees on each side. Or it might have occupied the
same range as at present, but with a discriminating power
so coarse as only to distinguish between two or three
degrees. Each degree therefore of the perceptive power,
and of the intensity of colour perceived, is a separate

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 141

correspondence. The same things are true of sounds,
tastes, smells, and thus we have a multitude of corre-
spondences. Taking all these considerations into account,
we find ourselves possessed of a perceptive nature surpass-
ingly rich in potency, and in the presence of characteris-
tics and motions in matter in endless variety. There are
correspondences "between them which are as the dust of
the earth for numher. If then against the conjunction
of five senses or even two finding one form and measure
of material activity suited to them the chances are over-
whelmingly great, how shall we set forth the impossibility
of the conjunction by chance of countless varieties and
measures of potency in each of five senses, and corre-
sponding to them innumerable motions suited to their
excitation existing in the material world.

7. The perceiving nature is of vast capacity. It can
receive at the same moment a multitude of impressions.
It might have been capable of taking over from the brain
and organ of vision only a few beams of light. It might
have been able to see only a point, a little spot, a tiny
flower or garden, and then it would have been compara-
tively narrow and poor. Instead of this it is on the grandest
scale. From a lofty vantage ground we can command
a view embracing the widest plains, a multitude of moun-
tains, and the blue vault of heaven. We can turn round
in a second or two, and see instantaneously afar on every
side. Lines of light, we have seen, have each hundreds
of billions of transverse vibrations at minutest points. In
a second the hundreds of billions in a line 180,000 miles
in length enter the eye. They are counted by centillions
multiplied by centillions. Those entering from a flower
are counted by still larger numbers. Inconceivably vaster
are the multitudes pouring in from an extended prospect.
Great also is their variety. In viewing it therefore the

142 THE CREATION OF MATTER

number and variety of motions passing over from the
brain to the perceiving nature are inexpressibly, im-
measurably, overwhelmingly great, and yet so vast is the
capacity for receiving them, so perfect is its adaptation
for dealing with them, so regal is it in power, that, with
matchless ease and smoothness of working, it receives,
deals with, and interprets and transfigures them after
its fashion. Let us consider and endeavour to imagine
the riches of the glory of this ordered action between the
perceiving and perceived natures, the amount of it, the
fineness of it, its transcendent rapidity and perfection.
Here is capacity for receiving great as the sea, rapid as the
light, refined to its fineness, adjusted to the exquisiteness
of its adjustments. Here is an inflow of motions, more
multitudinous than the molecules of all earth's rivers, and
their motions. The most extensive and admired outward
view is surpassed by the small yet inconceivably great
volume of activity passing through the eye, the retina, the
nerve fibres and the brain, but above all by the final action
on the perceiving nature. Here in an instant more work
is done than by all the machinery of the world in days.
It is accomplished with sublimest ease. We open our
eyes and look and feel as if no force had been expended.
It is divine work. Beside it the "that" of Michael Angelo
is vanity and coarseness. In presence of phenomena of
such rank, how can it be said that there is nothing more to
be seen than the eye of science recognises, that no sound
is uttered save such as it hears, that these phenomena are
to be regarded as phenomena and nothing more. We can
learn nothing of whence they are. They are meaningless,
they are silent, or their answer to the cry, Who hath called
them, and set them in order, is that of the Cyclops of old,
Ouris, OVTIS, OVTIS — No one, no one, no one! The mason
squares his stones and makes them fit for building. The

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 143

work is rough, the surfaces are uneven, yet is there un-
mistakable evidence that he has worked with intelligence.
Great is the difference between the signs of his hands and
those which genius imprints. But the difference is infini-
tesimal compared with that between the most brilliant
triumphs of human art and those which flame out on us in
the operations of perception, in its magnificent power of
dealing with the multitudes of motions that come to it in
a second from hills, and plains, and woods, and fields, and
streams. Is it then to be said that no art is needed for the
art supreme, for triumphs which a whole world of genius
could not produce in an eternity? Nay, assuredly, nay.
These phenomena are not meaningless. They mean in-
tensely. At a glance order is seen sufficient to transport and
raise to the whitest heat of admiration. And as the eyes of
the imagination gaze, and of the understanding open, a
hand breaks into view brilliant as the sun at noonday,
yea as the light of seven days, a hand that, when seen,
writes the name of God on the brain and heart for ever.
They are not silent. They speak. They sing. They are
as a chorus of myriads. They articulate, and name the
name that is above every name with a clearness and force
and awfulness as of that voice from Sinai that made
Israel remove and stand afar off.

In like manner our perception of sounds might have
been narrow and poor, but instead our perceptive nature
can perceive, and take over, and transform the motions
created by a grand instrument and orchestra, the multi-
farious sounds of a multitude making holiday, and the
mighty volume of the thunder's and ocean's roll. The
senses of smell and taste might have been capable of
nothing more than a touch at a point. Both, however,
are on a liberal scale. Thus in the case of all the senses
the amount and fineness of adjustment between the per-

144 THE CREATION OF MATTER

ceived and perceiving natures, the vastness of the capacity
of the latter to receive the vastness of the multitudes of
motions coming to it from the former, bears overmaster-
ing testimony to the all-transcending glory of the under-
standing that made and adapted them for each other.

8. But there is not merely one perceiving nature.
There are trillions of them, of a great number of genera
and species, and all possessing powers of the same kind,
and in the higher animals very much within the same
limited range. They are attached to material forms, and
use similar material organs. If they be developments
of matter, they make manifest, as we have seen, the riches
of order and potency stored in the primal elements which
have yielded them. If they be elements of a higher
nature, as seems irresistibly evinced by scientific considera-
tions arising from their action being separated, toto ccelo,
from all known forms of molecular and ether activities,
many questions arise as to whence they come, where they
lie, how they become attached to material frames, ques-
tions some of which cannot be answered. That, however,
with which alone we are concerned is the field here pre-
sented to us of correspondences surpassingly perfect,
correspondences many as the molecules of matter and the
ether vibrations, correspondences of the most remarkable
nature, between perceptive powers and objects perceived,
forming an overwhelming argument for their being made
and adapted to each other.

9. The motions involved are to be considered. Those
of light are carried by an ether in which the illuminating
vibrations range from under four hundred billions per
second to nearly eight hundred billions. As far as the
perceiving nature is concerned, no ether might have
existed at all ; or, if existing, it might have had such
properties that its vibrations might have all been in

PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 145

thousands, not hundreds, of billions, or even any numbers
beyond. They might not have reached three hundred and
ninety-five billions, nor three hundred, nor one billion.
In like manner, atoms and molecules might have existed,
and no motions in them, or motions far from any relation-
ship to those of the ether, far from such a relationship as
to enable them to give birth to the motions that produce
light and colour. In short, there might have been
neither ether nor matter standing in any relationship to
each other, or to the perceiving nature. It might have
been impossible for the three to have been found in a
condition fit for harmonious interaction. There is no
limit to the imaginings of the different ranges which the
perceiving and perceived natures might have occupied,
and no limit to the imaginings of the variety of condi-
tions necessary to their being adapted to each other ; and
so there is no limit to the number of chances against the
three meeting for light-giving. That there are not merely
two but three entities involved adds incalculably to the
force of the argument. In like manner, the motions of
matter might have been out of all relationship to the
capacity for perceiving sound. They might easily have
been of a velocity too small or too great. They might
have been the fewest in number or the largest. All
matter might in like manner have been out of relationship
to the perceptive powers of taste, smell, and touch. In
short, the two natures might in their capacities and
motions have been in an infinite number of ranges small
or large, and at any measure of distance from each other.
That the two are within the same range, that they are so
in so vast a multitude of relationships, that there are in
so many kinds of material molecules, and in so great a
multitude of each kind, and in the ether, so unex-
haustible a number of ways in which they can touch
10

146 THE CREATION OF MATTER

innumerable perceiving natures, makes it impossible not
to conclude that they were made for each other. It is
impossible without skill to play on the simplest instru-
ment. It is impossible for ignorance and chance and
hands unpractised to do justice to a grand organ, so to
govern its stops, strike its keys, and command its har-
monies, as to captivate and delight cultivated listeners.
And yet this is an easy achievement compared with the
fitting of perceived natures to the perceiving, of so order-
ing the ether and multitudinous molecules of matter,
that they should unite to govern its stops, strike its keys,
command its harmonies, and produce in it the vastest
variety of sensations; yea, that the earth and all that
therein is, the ether and sun and moon and stars, should,
as consummate artists, in all their hosts of particles and
parts, unite to act upon perceiving natures without
number, and fill the earth with the music of their
working.

THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES

Darwin — Factors in Evolution— Law of Progress — Selection-
Time Element.

ATTEMPTS have been made to get rid of the conclusion
that the organised world is the work of mind. Tyndal,
Haeckel, and others have boldly maintained that the
potencies necessary to its evolution are to be found in
matter ; that there is no need to go beyond it, or behind
it, above it, or beneath it, to find a cause of its order.
Haeckel, with fierce energy and great wealth of language
and argumentation, with a high sense of his own superi-
ority to weakness, with a lofty scorn of the black-coated
fraternity and all the feeble-minded race who believe in
an intelligent creator, — Haeckel fights for monism as for
life. Atoms alone are; atoms have of themselves built
up the great globe and all that it inhabit. Amongst
atoms, we have seen, he gives the chief and ruling place
to carbon. He places it on the throne. Coke is the lord
of creation. Coke is the all-ordering maker of the vast
kosmos. Carbon is the mighty atom. Carbon is God.

By the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859
Charles Darwin introduced a new era in the history of
biology. The doctrine of evolution, which had been
propounded long before, but had remained very much in
the background, made in his hands a great leap forward,

147

148 THE CREATION OF MATTER

and took the world of science by storm. With limita-
tions and professions of uncertainty as to all the factors,
it is now very generally accepted, though few ascribe to
it the range and power in which Haeckel exults. He
makes it everything. He regards it as sufficient, through
the mighty power of carbon, to account for the most
complex phenomena of existence.

The chief principles of Darwin's theory may be stated
briefly. There is —

1. TJie law of heredity or likeness of offspring to
parents. — Like invariably produces like. No law is
more universally known and acknowledged. The seeds
of a plant grow into the same plant. The eggs of an
animal grow into the same animal form.

2. The law of variation. — " No being on this earthly
ball is like another all in all." In every species of
plants and animals individuals tend to vary from the
specific type. No plant is wholly like another plant.
No animal offspring, in all respects, resembles its parents
or any other individual to which they give birth. There
are variations generally in every organ, in every appear-
ance, throughout whole bodies. In some cases the varia-
tions are considerable. By the law of heredity these
variations are transmitted. A new species of short-legged
sheep was produced in America at a single bound.

3. Tlie law of multiplication by geometrical progression.
— There is in many plants and animals the possibility of
increasing a hundred- or even a thousand-fold in a single
year.

4. The law of limited populations. — The number of
every species is limited by the conditions or nature of the
environment in which it lives, by the amount of food in
it, and by the number and strength of the enemies which
it has to encounter. A plant or tree may produce seeds

THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES 149

without number, but if the ground be already fully and
strongly held, they cannot live and grow. The multi-
plication of animals is limited by the same principle.
Over-population, excessive increase of any species, pro-
duces a struggle for existence. Seeds and plants contend
for a place in the ground and for the nourishment it
yields. Animals contend for food and other necessaries
of life. The strongest varieties prevail. They assert
their superiority, maintain their ground, seize the food.
They live and flourish and multiply. They survive, and
transmit their characteristics to their offspring. This
is the law variously denominated : The struggle for
existence, the survival of the fittest, or natural selection,
by which nature selects and hands forward all improve-
ments, and so advances.

5. The law of unceasing change of environment. — Even
now no year or season is like another. There are seasons
in which the greatest strain is put on the existence of
various species, in which the struggle is of terrible in-
tensity, and the weakest perish.

6. Past time has been to all intents and purposes
infinite. — Many millions of years have passed since evolu-
tion began, since the first forms of life were quickened.
Ample time and opportunities have been afforded for the
advances made. Hence it is probable that the existing
species of plants and animals have been evolved from a
few primitive and simple forms of life, or probably from
one form alone.

According to the theory of evolution, there was a time
when life existed not on the earth. Ey chemical action,
by a concourse of molecules of a very peculiar and
complex nature, a concourse taking place in very peculiar
and complex circumstances, such as no experiment can
now discover, protoplasm came into being, and life was

150 THE CREATION OF MATTER

generated. Protoplasm straightway began to act after its
manner, to take in and grow, to divide and multiply.
Amoebae, though mere specks of this form of structure,
claimed an independent existence, and showed them-
selves capable of performing certain of the functions of
life. A great advance was made when a nucleus was
evolved and cells formed. Cells learned to multiply,
vary, and build up organisations. Organisations scored
a triumph when they developed the power of producing
seeds and eggs, in which they concentrated the means
of reproducing their kind. By processes inconceivably
slow, by gradations insensibly fine, exercising the patience,
and careful with the care as of eternal genius, the
patience and the care which alone produces what is
enduring, evolution worked. Organisations became in-
creasingly complex, multiplied their parts, tissues, and
organs. As each kind increased in numbers, in fields in
which room and food were limited, in environments
in which were times of severity and enemies of power,
there arose a struggle for existence. The feeblest per-
ished. The strongest and fittest survived, and continued
the onward progress. Onward, ever onward, the evolu-
tion marched, adding triumph to triumph. Thousands
of years passed, tens of thousands, millions, during which
variations without number were effected, and wonderful
advances made. Organisations the most diverse, organi-
sations the most complex and wonderful, with cells
differentiated unto myriads of times, living, seeing,
hearing, thinking, reasoning, and moral natures, came
into being.

In the present order of things, the most highly organ-
ised animals are developed from germs in a few months.
Their development carries the organism through the same
stages as originally required millions of years. It reveals

THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES 151

the lines along which evolution advanced. It shows the
various forms through which, in ages of ages, the original
germ passed in its forward journey. The history of
the embryo makes manifest the history of the species.
Ontogeny, or the history of the individual, unfolds the
course of the phylogeny, or stages in the advance of
the tribe. From the germ to the perfect man, there
were, it is affirmed, twenty stages.

In some such manner, according to the theory of
evolution, have all species of plants and animals been
gradually brought into being. But, supposing it true,
the theory accounts for little, for comparatively very
little. It deals principally with the manner in which
the work has progressed, the laws according to which
it has been accomplished. It describes processes; it
states laws. But it does not account for the processes ;
it does not account for the laws. It gives no real ex-
planation of the wealth of order and adjustment pervading
the work from its first beginning on through its surpass-
ingly perfect processes and triumphs till it is crowned in
man. It assumes the existence of the elements, of
materials the vastest in quantity, the most marvellous
in quality, of materials so ordered as naturally and neces-
sarily to grow into the great kosmos in the midst of which
we live. All that has been evolved must have been
originally in the primary elements. They had in them
the potencies and measures ; they existed in the quantities
and conditions which sufficiently account for all which
they have built up. They were so ordered on this view
as to be capable of carrying forward the advances which
have issued in a world of form and life indescribably rich
and magnificent. It ascribes to them a glory of order
of which of necessity an account must be demanded.

In the evolution of living forms the springing into

152 THE CREATION OF MATTER

being of protoplasm is the first step. We have already
dealt with it and its power of reproducing its kind, its
power of feeding, growing, dividing, and so multiplying.
We have also dealt with cells of which organisations are
built up, and with the specialised cells or eggs which,
obeying the law of heredity, build them. We now there-
fore come to the laws of variation and progress.

The laws of variation and progress. — Gradually by
these laws amoebae came into being, infusoria, worms,
insects, star-fish, shell-fish, spiders, fish, birds, quadrupeds,
and men. By the law of variation alone, protoplasm
would have produced protoplasm in great variety, but it
would only have been protoplasm. Cells, if they had in
some way been brought into being, would have yielded
varieties of cells. Infusoria, worms, and every kind of
animal would have yielded varieties of their own kind.
But the variations made advances. The forces at work
carried them forward to higher and ever more compli-
cated variations, until they culminated in the highest,
with their myriads of wonders. This course of evolution,
as we contemplate it, is of overmastering grandeur. The
bodies it exhibits to us, the individual organs it presents
to our view, the triumphs it sets before our eyes, no
language can do justice to. All over the fields of life
there has been a determined and uninterrupted march
forward. Onward and upward has been the motto of
nature, onward to greater complexity, upward to higher
excellency. It does not appear that the weaker which
perished were monstrosities. There is no reason to believe
that evolution advanced in millions of wrong directions,
along centillions of unfit lines, and by chance discovered
the right line. Like the combinations of chemistry, its
products have been useful and good, splendid in pro-
portion and elegant in form. The onward march to the

THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES 153

grass of the field, the lily, the rose, the orchid, the trees
of the forest, the vine, the fig-tree, and all fruit trees,
was from the beginning, though slower, yet as regular and
beautiful and ordered as is now the growth of the grass,
the lily, the rose, and all fruit trees. The onward march
to the lark, the eagle, the dog, the horse was as regular
as is now the development of these forms of life. The
advances in the history of evolution did not form a vast
chaos, in which were centillions of failures, but in which
by chance one fitting and worthy form of life appeared.
They formed a scene of ordered and fitting, though not
always the strongest, forms of life. In short, their evolu-
tion from the beginning was toward the good. An eye
resting on them at every stage would have pronounced
them very good. A scientist, if he could have lived and
examined the world of life at every stage of its history,
would have been able to affirm that then, as now, law
reigned; that then, as now, the whole action of nature
was ordered action. What, then, meaneth this tendency
so masterful to ordered progress, this obedience to law
and exclusion of chance? Why were the forms of life
evolved from the beginning in so overwhelming a measure,
such as commend themselves to a seeing and understand-
ing mind? Why was the evolution of the lily and the
rose, the lion and the ox, as regular as is now their
development from seed and egg? Why has phylogeny
been as beautiful as ontogeny? Why have the forces
of nature advanced through the millions of years with
patient steadiness as if knowing the end from the begin-
ning; as a man, turning not east nor west, north nor
south, or in any chance direction, but making straight
for a chosen goal ; as a ship, not wandering whithersoever
winds and currents may carry her, but guided over
thousands of miles to a determined haven? Why at

154 THE CREATION OF MATTER

every stage were material and living elements able to
work and to weave and build up nothing but the ordered
and the good? Why, but because of the perfection of
their own order. Why, but because of the carefully
measured and balanced potencies in themselves, measured
and balanced by mind to obey a law of ordered progress,
even as now to obey a law of ordered growth. If there
be mind, as we have seen, in the building up of animal
frames, much more is mind necessary in steady and
regular advances, marching forward through vast periods
of years.

The struggle for existence. — The struggle for existence,
the survival of the fittest, and natural selection are the
various names given to the law which is Darwin's glory. It
is determined by environment. It is on environment that
everything involved in its action depends. Environment
makes the struggle. Environment kills. Environment
selects, preserves, and maintains. From the beginning
of evolution, onward through its whole course, environ-
ment determined the variations which should survive.
Environment includes physical conditions, abundance or
scarcity of food, enemies and friends of every kind and
nature. At every point, in every stage, a variation
suited to the physical conditions, finding sufficiency of
food, finding itself stronger than its enemies, survived
and propagated its kind. Times of special sifting inter-
vened, the physical conditions became severe, food became
scarce, and enemies multiplied, and so all feeble varieties
were destroyed, while only the very strongest remained.
There have been in the history of the earth times of
overpowering heat, times of overwhelming cold, times
when scarcity of food prevailed, times when enemies and
hostile influences multiplied. But, on the whole, during
the millions of years throughout which evolution has

THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES 155

been proceeding, environment has played a beneficent part.
It has killed off feeblenesses, and preserved the strong, the
well formed, and the worthy. It has nursed improve-
ments and carried them forward. In its times of greatest
severity and stress of physical conditions it has not, as
it might have done, slain all the children dependent upon
it. In its times of greatest scarcity of food it has left
sufficiency for a chosen remnant. When enemies most
prevailed, they never became so numerous and powerful
as to slay a large portion of the species. It has acted
throughout as with wisdom and discretion. Its very
severities braced, strengthened, and improved the children
of its choice. Why has environment acted in a manner
so ordered? Why has it tended to preserve useful
variations ? How has it been able to produce an animal
world so characterised by usefulness, suitableness, and
beauty ? Why has it co-operated with the life element so
perfectly ? Why, but because it has itself been ordered
and guided. It has been as a mighty mould, moulding
and fashioning all living things. It has been as if care-
fully devised from beginning to end for the purpose.

The subject of environment thus leads us back to
evolution in another field — the evolution of the universe
of worlds. All form a unity. All hang together. All
form part of the environment, and have their part in its
action. And if they have been evolved out of material
elements scattered through immensity, this work like
that of the evolution of life has been accomplished in a
manner transcendently glorious. In size and form, in
collocation and condition, we behold in them order on
the grandest scale. And on this condition of order being
brought about depended the evolution of life, on any
individual world depended the vast environment far and
near all around the earth, round its living forms, of which

156 THE CREATION OF MATTER

we have spoken. And so the evolution of living forms
on the earth hung on the ordered condition of matter in
the earth, on its suitableness for producing and nourishing
life, on the ordered condition of matter in the universe,
on an amount of order inexpressibly vast.

If, then, the vegetable and animal world have reached
their present condition by evolution, the evidence that
mind has been behind the scene, as the first and original
cause of, and preparing for, every step and every advance,
taking every step, making every advance, is overwhelm-
ing. From the foundation to the top stone, from the first
and simplest combination to the completed and complex
structure, working after the manner of intelligence is
seen. Everywhere there shines the hand of inimitable
mind. The evolved world is not a daub or a blotch,
or as any work done by a man in darkness and ignorance.
It is not as if millions of men were to bring stones
unknown to each other, and blindly fling them on a field
in any direction. No gem of architecture, no building of
any kind, rises as the fruit of such work. In the evolu-
tion of protoplasm and ovules, in their building up of
living forms, there is no irregularity, no bungling, no
working as in the dark, no groping, no sign as of an
unskilful hand. There is perfect law, there is a regular
course and manner of progress, a measured, skilled,
trained, onward march to a goal. At no point is there
the sign of the hand of chance, but everywhere of mind.
It is as in a great ribbon manufactory, where silk threads
pass to and fro, and are skilfully mixed for the produc-
tion of patterns. It is not the whole matter to know
how the threads are arranged, and the modes of working
for the production of the pattern. We ask, Why are the
threads in their ordered places ? How came they to be
so disposed as to form beautiful patterns ? Why are all

THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES 157

the threads of the same constitution and measured?
Whence the carefully constructed machinery, and the
force applied to it 1 And so it is not enough to tell us
in what way the frames, and forms, and tissues, and
patterns of the animal world have been woven. That
explains the most insignificant part of the work done.
Tlie great thing to be accounted for is the existence of
the material, its suitableness, its position, qualities, and
forces. And to account for it, we must go back to the
foundation elements, and finding in them the potencies
of all that is evolved, ascribe them to mind.

The sufficient time element. — " Carneades," says Cicero,
" imagined that in the quarries at Chios he found in a
stone that was split up the representation of the head of
a little Pan, or sylvan deity. I believe he might find a
figure not unlike, but surely not such a one as you would
say had been formed by an excellent sculptor such as
Scopas. Colours thrown upon canvas without design
may have some resemblance to a human face, but do you
think they would make as beautiful a picture as the
Coan Venus ? For so verily the case is that chance never
perfectly imitates design." Colours thrown by chance on
canvas by unskilful and unpractised hands would not, in
eternal ages, produce a perfect picture. Were all the
hands now on earth to make the trial, does anyone doubt
what the result would be 1 There would not be one gem
among all. Would another generation succeed better?
Would any generation for ever succeed better ? JS"o, not
any. As the result of pure chance a Coan Venus or a
Madonna would never be seen. To chance such results
are impossible. Ah ! what foolery is it to dream that a
mighty world has been produced by chance — a world
shining with glories of mind as much surpassing those
that beam in beauty from the loveliest human face as

158 THE CREATION OF MATTER

the sun outshines a burning rush, — what foolery is it
to dream that chance could achieve triumphs so tran-
scendent even in an eternity. The time element in
evolution only adds to the wonder and the difficulty
and the strength of the demand for the presence and
action of mind. Were a painter or sculptor to live for
a thousand years, and devote himself to the production
of a painting, or chef-d'ceuvres of sculpture, formed of
myriads of parts, every part a matchless gem, and all
forming one whole that should seem to live and move,
would not his completed work evidence a whole world of
thought and care? The species of animated nature are
many. Each is crammed with a wealth of the finest
work. Each is the result of operations carried on
through ages of ages. Every touch, every minutest
step in the advance is a stroke of matchless genius,
was produced by the joint action of multitudinous
ordered elements, and an environment on the vastest
scale. The whole work from beginning to end, and at
every point, is not merely like that of a painter or
sculptor working patiently and skilfully through cen-
turies, but infinitely surpasses it, and therefore proclaims
more loudly and clearly, proclaims as with the sound of
a mighty chorus, that it is due to an understanding of
incomparable glory.

Consider the earth at the present time, its form, its
size, its particles, their multitudes, their chemical pro-
perties, the ether and its relations to them, the forms
of life in flora and fauna, and are we not overmastered
by the riches of order and qualities and powers that are
in them ? Go back as far as we please, material elements
and the potencies of life were so conditioned, collocated,
and environed as that, after the evolutions of ages of
ages, every particle should be in the condition which it

THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES 159

occupies at the present moment, should be executing the
motions, showing the qualities, doing the work, and
rendering the services which it is now rendering. Dur-
ing the mightiest conceivable interval it has not been
a moment still. It has changed its place, its action, and
certain numbers of its motions, times without number ;
but there has not been a change, there has not been an
activity, according to the theory of evolution, that was
not in it and its environment, at any point in its past
history. And the whole matter of the globe, if it existed
a hundred million years ago, was in such a form and state
as naturally and necessarily to be evolved into the con-
dition with which we are familiar. It was so ordered,
collocated, and characterised, as to be naturally developed
into the atoms of the seventy elements, into their com-
pounds, into protoplasm and all that it builds up. It
was a scene of order, therefore, as remarkable as what has
come out of it, and therefore demanding an explanation
as much as do the complex arrangements and organisa-
tions which now open so extensive fields for study. We
have therefore to account not merely for a scene of vast
and complicated order, existing at any moment, but a
scene constantly shifting for millions of years, constantly
advancing, and at every point in its history making
straight, as if guided by mind for its present glories.
The same is true of all the matter of the sun's system, of
all the matter of the universe. The universe is a scene
of order. At every point in its history it has been a
scene of order. It is now shining brilliantly with the
work of mind. At every period in the history of its
evolution it has been so shining. It has passed through
changes innumerable, but every change has been accord-
ing to law. There have been operations on the vastest
scale, and operations most minute, but every operation

160 THE CREATION OF MATTER

has been according to order. If we contemplate the
changings, workings, advancings, if with the most
enlarged imagining we survey evolving elements in
their grand march forward, if we call up before our
mind the perfection of order in their motions and actings,
from their circumference to their core, from ancient ages
to the time now present, are we not compelled to admit
that they shine with a light infinitely dazzling, are we
not overpowered with awe as in the presence of a mind
of all-transcending power?

Evolutionists say, that were their doctrine false, were
the phenomena on which they rely for its proof nothing
better than lying signs, all the interest of nature studies
would be dissipated. Geologists say, that if the strata,
which they find in the crust of the earth, do not deliver
a true message as to their formation, if, notwithstanding
phenomena whose natural meaning is so different, they
were created and laid down at the same moment, all
the fascination of geology would disappear. With
immeasurably greater justice and force may we say,
that, if animated forms produced by fitting and patient
advances through millenniums of years be not the work
of mind, if the signs of its operation in them be but
lying wonders, if, notwithstanding their multitude and
force and brilliancy, mind had no part in their pro-
duction, then all the interest and fascination of evolution
itself, and of the sciences illustrated in it, are dissipated
and disappear. For surely the interest of every science
is to the human mind an intellectual interest. Their
fascination lies in the marvellous order they reveal.
Their enchantment proceeds from wondrous laws, mar-
vellous arrangements, from the signs of mind with
which nature is so radiant. And if these are only a
deceit and a snare, if the most wonderful and striking

THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES 161

phenomena that are be but a mockery and laughter in
our faces, what can we do but turn away from them with
abhorrence and contempt? But we cannot think thus
meanly of them. If we did so for a moment, and turned
toward them again and looked them in the face, they
would be more than conquerors over us, they would
make us ashamed of our thoughts. "We cannot but
think nobly of their nature and birth. Their simplicity
and transparent honesty, their beauty and power, render
it impossible not to believe their clear and unimpeachable
testimony to the source of their existence.

ii

XI

CONCLUSION

Material Elements ordered not by Necessity, not by Chance, but
by Mind — Primal Elements ordered — Made and Created — All
Things ordered by Infinite Power and Wisdom.

WE shall now endeavour to show to what the whole
matter tends, to what conclusion it leads us. For this
purpose we observe — That matter and its properties
cannot have necessity as the ground of their being.

The number of the atoms of each element is enormous.
There are billions of them within the smallest space. In
the universe there are worlds of them. But within, say,
our sun's system, there must be a finite and definite
number of each kind. There must be x atoms of oxygen,
y of carbon, z, a, b, c of other substances. It cannot, we
say, be of absolute necessity that of oxygen the number
x should be found in the space supposed, of absolute
necessity that there should have been neither more nor
less. It cannot be of absolute necessity that of carbon
there should be found the number ?/, and of other sub-
stances the number z, a, b, c, d. No sane mind can for a
moment imagine that from the nature of things it was
an eternal necessity that the seventy, or thereby, different
kinds of atoms, should all exist, or be formed in the
numbers, and proportion of numbers, in which they help
to form our great system obeying the orb of day.

When also we consider the atoms as they are, and the

162

CONCLUSION 163

conditions and laws of their action revealed by science,
we see them, in their every individual, radiant with signs
of mind. In themselves they are material, but on them, in
their form and characteristics, the image and superscrip-
tion of mind are unmistakably stamped, show themselves
not dimly, not as on a coin old and worn, but as on one
fresh from the mint, as on one ever new, and that never,
by any amount of use, loses its brilliancy or clearness of
outline. It is impossible therefore to ascribe them to any
unintelligent principle. It is impossible to find a ground
of their being, as they are in a blind physical necessity.

The idea of relationship between separate entities
excludes the idea of necessity, and implies the operation
of chance or mind. A relationship is a correspondence,
or state of adaptation, between the qualities and powers
of two distinct objects. There is nothing in the idea of
necessity as a cause to make them correspond with each
other, to produce a state of adaptation between them.
There is nothing in the idea of necessity to create
relationship, or any reference to each other. Take an
atom of carbon and one of oxygen. Both suppose have
existed from eternity. They exist of themselves. It
cannot be said that they made themselves, but simply
that they exist of themselves and have their character-
istics of themselves, each independently of any external
entity. In this ground of their being there was nothing
necessarily making them different from each other, and
necessarily adapting them for each other. A blind
physical necessity could not, being blind, necessarily
establish relationship between them. If relationship
exist, it must on the supposition of eternity be due to
chance. If only a small number of atoms thus related
to each other existed, we might be unable to draw any
other conclusion. But if the relationships are so many,

164 THE CREATION OF MATTER

and of so marvellous a nature, if every atom that is,
is so constituted as to have relations and clear and
unmistakable reference to other atoms, it is rendered
impossible to ascribe them to chance. No healthy
understanding can do anything but acknowledge that
they are due to mind. In short, eternity and chance
are here indissolubly joined together, and when chance
is excluded, eternity also is excluded, and mind enters.

In bringing about relationship between eternal atoms,
chance cannot be conceived of as having any sphere of
action. We can imagine it doing something in forming
collocations of atoms in motion, but what part can it
have played in bringing about adaptation among inde-
pendent and unchangeable atoms, before all supposed
motion? It might go a very little way in producing
order among existences, mingling, acting, and reacting
on each other. But how or where could it find any
place in producing order that must be conceived of as
existing before mingling, acting, and reacting began?
The atoms must have been as they are, before there
could be any opportunity for chance doing aught.

According to the doctrine of chances, the greater the
number of independent characteristics that meet together
for the production of a particular result the stronger is
the evidence that their meeting and the result are due
not to chance but to mind. Every additional character-
istic adds greatly to the strength of the evidence, increases
it according to a rapid multiple proportion. Sixteen con-
tingencies meeting are immeasurably stronger than four,
and sixteen times sixteen are overwhelming. Two dice,
shaken, and showing the same sides thrice would
surprise, but if it were to occur ten or twenty times, no
one would hesitate to ascribe it to an arrangement caus-
ing such a result. Between two atoms of, say, hydrogen

CONCLUSION 165

and chlorine there are several adaptations and relations
and as many contingencies. Both have the atomic nature,
form, and force. These are with inexpressible accuracy
and minuteness adapted to each other. They unite to
form a molecule possessed of new properties. Here are
contingencies strongly suggestive of mind. And the
argument is not merely a little but greatly strengthened,
when we find another atom of each, in which the same
properties and the same results of union are found, and
the same contingencies are involved. When we reach
ten of each, or twenty, or a hundred, it becomes of
inconceivable force. But the numbers and contingencies
go beyond all bounds, and the idea of chance as account-
ing for their state is chased and driven to a distance
beyond all bounds, and is absolutely excluded. But
chlorine, as we have seen, has all its atoms adjusted, not
to hydrogen alone, but to all the elements, and in every
case the same argument may be advanced, and with the
same overwhelming force. And taking into account, and
adding the multitude of affinities between elements and
elements, elements and compounds, compounds and com-
pounds, the relationships of the molecules to the ether,
and all the outcome from them in the many forms of
life, we slay the slain ten thousand thousand times, we
strengthen by centillions of bulwarks the building already
strong as the eternal rock.

On the supposition that the order existing among the
elements of matter is due to mind, how great that mind
must be. The perfection of the adjustments, the com-
plexities and extent and amount of arrangements, are
such as to demand in the intelligence producing them
power immeasurably beyond all bounds that imagination
can conceive. He who could devise in thought, and
realise in fact, the vast and intricate system of the

166 THE CREATION OF MATTER

material world, who could make it so rich in beauty,
who could put into it so extraordinary a wealth of
order, who could make it throughout all its borders, in
every, even the smallest portion of its extensive territories,
such as to create a boundless enthusiasm of admiration,
must be as far above the sons of men in understanding
as the most distant star from which it takes light
thousands of years to come is above the earth. The
union of suns and planets and moons, of clusters and
galaxies and nebulae, is set in an order that declares
the glory of the wisdom of Him who built them and
appointed them their place. But the glory of wisdom
which they proclaim is not to be compared with the
glory, is almost infmitesimally small compared with the
glory displayed in the universe of atoms. Can then
order so amazing be referred to chance? Can that
which is worthy of a mind so far transcending all
measures of power be the work of, or have as the
ground of its being, any unintelligent principle? Can
triumphs, which demand for their achieving the under-
standing of a God, be ascribed to any blind nonentity?
They cannot, they cannot. Any such suggestion is an
insult to the poorest understanding.

Because of the forces of matter Herbert Spencer admits
that there must exist an infinite and eternal force. The
universe is abundantly charged with force. It is every-
where, at every point. Many and great are the varieties
of it. There is the force of gravity, that in its might
binds suns and systems together, and at the same time
determines the fall of a feather and the weight of an
atom. There are heat energies, which in the sun rage
as in a furnace thousand of billions of miles in extent,
hundreds of thousands of miles deep, and send forth
swift messengers to fall gently on, and minister to, the

CONCLUSION 167

earth. There are the forces of affinity, of cohesion, of
adhesion, that bind atom to atom, particle to particle.
Tli ere is the force of elasticity, that makes light to shine,
heat to travel, and music to sound. There are the forces
in steam and electricity which man has harnessed to his
chariot wheels. But force is not everything. It does
not occupy the whole field of existence. It is not the
greatest thing that we know. It is not of highest rank,
and lord of all. Weights, energies, affinities, elasticities,
and electricities do not reign supreme and swallow up all
besides. Nay verily. Do we not know things of higher
rank ? Is not mind higher 1 Is it not of wider sweep ?
Is not every form of force, if on the earth or in the sun,
in its hand, as in the hand of its greater, its higher, its
master, bridling it, meting it out, guiding its operations,
and teaching it its ordinances. Can a mere force see, and
set in order ; an infinite and eternal force of which
nothing more can be said, produce and carry on this
ordered scene on which attention is demanded to things
on the greatest scale and in minutest detail ? If so, then
may we expect to plant a stone and from a tree of its
growth, to pluck the fruit, to light the furnace, dissolve
the iron, and see springing forth letters that shall
arrange themselves into works greater than Plato and
Shakespeare ever penned. There is an infinite and
eternal force to which all things are due, but it is an
infinite and eternal force at the command of an infinite
and eternal Mind.

The atoms of matter are made, but it may be said that
their present condition has existed only for a time, and
that the seventy elements have been formed out of
elements still simpler. There may not exist at present
the means by which to produce a separation, but they
may be separable. Such an allegation cannot be denied.

168 THE CREATION OF MATTER

But the fewer the absolutely simple elements may be
supposed to be, the more richly must they be endowed.
To the multitude of adaptations and adjustments which
we have already found must be added the number neces-
sary to produce the present seventy. And thus, if there
be only twenty, or ten, or five, or even two, all that we
brought forward showing the order in the formation of
compounds by innumerable combinations among the
seventy continues applicable to them, and applicable also
to the unions formed from the two.

But it is said that there may be only one primal
element. In this case all the particles are alike. It
must have consisted of particles in some form. It must
have been an element naturally divisible and separable,
otherwise it could never by any means have been divided,
and parts separated from parts to form aggregations or
combinations. And we say that, on this supposition, they
were alike, were of the same figure, size, and weight, and
were endowed with the same forces and capacities. And
the argument we have advanced from likeness becomes
in their case of greater weight in proportion to the
greater number of atoms alike, in proportion to the
greater wonderfulness of their constitution. The atoms
of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen are wonder-
ful exceedingly, but they are as nothing compared with
the atoms out of which, on this supposition, the whole
physical, chemical, and living world has been evolved.
Nothing can come out of any entity which is not in it.
It cannot yield a multitude of variations unless they
belong to its fundamental nature, ready for development.
And so if there be but one simple kind of original
particle, and there have come from it all the variations
with which we are familiar, what must that particle be ?
All the variety in the universe must be hidden in it.

CONCLUSION 169

Can anyone then ascribe the likeness of gems so rich and
multitudinous to chance ? Chance could not have given
us twenty atoms so constituted and so similar. Posses-
sion by chance of forces and characteristics so extra-
ordinary in their nature, so perfectly similar and so
exactly measured, so exquisitely adapted and so richly
adaptable, is an absolutely impossible suggestion. Every
particle, and all the particles, with one voice sounding
everywhere through immensity, inexpressible in beauty,
clearness, and force, protest against the madness that
would bring it forward.

The atoms of matter, whether of one or many kinds,
have not been formed by mere division. In such a case
the matter divided must have been naturally divisible
into such atoms of their size and weight and nature,
it must have been composed of aggregates of them ; and
then the question reverts to the same position as before,
for they must all have existed from eternity in the same
condition as now, though under a different general
arrangement. They are not formed by mere aggregation.
That would imply the existence from eternity of atoms of
a smaller size, but of the same nature and constitution,
and therefore having the atomic form, and all the
possibilities of their present condition. It would imply
that those atoms of smaller size happened to be of such
measures and figures as to be capable of being formed by
mind into units the exact counterparts of each other. It
would imply that they possessed the same characteristics
as the aggregates now possess, and that they had in them
the power of acting as the aggregates now act. It would
necessitate their having the characteristic of a strong
force of cohesion. The existence of this force between
two independent particles was a contingency. It was
pure chance that there should be an attraction between

i yo THE CREATION OF MATTER

them of so fine a nature, and capable of binding them
together so firmly and so closely that instead of acting
independently they act as one. In this form the con-
tingencies are as wonderful, and are more numerous than
on the supposition of the simplicity of the atoms as they
now are.

If they are the product of chemical combination, if
they are ascribed to it, they only, we have seen, multiply
the signs on them of mind, they only afford a larger field
for the argument that they are its work.

They are not developed by all processes combined out
of a chaos of matter. What has made it possible for
minds possessed of reason to believe that the universe
and its order, the earth and its wonderful organisms and
forms of life, have been gradually evolved out of primitive
matter 1 What made it possible for some of the ancients
to imagine that all things could be accounted for by a
fortuitous concourse of atoms ? Because without acknow-
ledging it or clearly seeing it themselves, they postulated
the existence of matter in an ordered condition, and
endowed with the riches of its varied and measured
properties. If matter, in its primal elements, had been
supposed to be a real chaos, without order or relationship
of parts, without measured properties, how could it have
been imagined that the most beautiful and wonderful
organisations could be produced by its action ? Evolution
necessarily supposes order and measured potencies in the
materials which work in it. Chaos can neither evolve
itself, nor can it be evolved. Disorder can neither develop
itself, nor can it be developed.

It cannot develop itself. If the primal elements of
matter had been in all respects inert, without atomic form
and force, without the forces of gravity and cohesion and
many wonderful characteristics besides, they could not

CONCLUSION 171

have evolved themselves into a glorious universe. Inert
matter, empty of potency, could not have become a
fountain of power. Atoms without likeness or relation-
ship, atoms without the atomic nature, could not have
developed into chemical combinations. It is because in
the world we are face to face with matter in an ordered
condition, with vast amounts of the same and of various
kinds, with those amounts marvellously characterised by
relationships, endowed with wonderful powers mingled
together, and everywhere as of themselves bringing their
powers into play, that anyone has been able to imagine
that the world is self-evolved.

By mere arrangement of materials mind could not have
evolved a kosmos out of a chaos, or brought order out
of disorder. No human mind, though possessed of the
most brilliant genius, though endowed with the mightiest
power of arrangement, could form the simplest instrument
•without materials suitable for the purpose. If then we
ascribe to the mind which built up the universe, not an
infinite and creative power, but only the power of
arranging materials, it is evident that out of no chaos, out
of no realm knowing only disorder, could He have called
it forth. By arrangement only the order that exists can
be made to show itself. For arrangement there must be
substances capable of being arranged, needing only collo-
cation to produce the results. Who can produce order
where order there is none 1 Out of an element void of
any quality, who can make that quality to spring ? Out
of any entity who can bring that which is not already in
its nature 1 No finite mind can by arrangement do these
things.

The primal particles are the work of mind. Whatever
may have been the primal condition of matter, whatso-
ever supposition we may form as of fluidity, or any mode

172 THE CREATION OF MATTER

of existence, it must have been naturally divisible into
particles, and therefore composed of them, into particles
having in them the ordered potencies revealed in the
evolutions from them, and therefore we say the work
of mind. But if they lie at the very foundation, are
perfectly simple, and yet are the work of mind, they
must be so by creation. No other alternative is left.
Mind must have given them their being.

Suppose a finite mind in the beginning seeking eternal
matter within His sphere. The question was, Should
He find it? Should He find it in sufficient quantity?
Should He find it in a state of chaos even 1 There might
have been but an insignificant mass at a point in space.
It was a pure chance that even it should exist. It was
a pure chance that many masses or one of large size
should have being. The chances were countless against
the amount existing in the universe being found. The
supposition therefore of a chaos, even of matter, having
being in the immensity of space, and a finite and relative
being existing, not at an infinite distance from it, but in
the same space, and through relationship to it able to
build it up into the kosmos we know, is one which the
rational mind cannot for a moment entertain. The
force of these considerations is increased in an enormous
measure when we take into account the wonderful,
multitudinous, and varied characteristics of the material
world, and specially if we affirm that life and every
faculty in living natures is an evolution from it. And
if vitality and mind are elements, then that so vast
an amount of different elements capable of being
brought together into beautiful working order should
have existed by chance from eternity, is absolutely
impossible.

Creation demands infinite power. If I reach the fact

CONCLUSION 173

of creation, said Dr. Duncan, I reach the Infinite, for the
Infinite power alone is creative. (1) Creation demands
infinite perceptive power. He who can give a particle
existence must be able to perceive any measure of small-
ness. He sees it through its whole being and in its
every characteristic. His hand has touched through all
its borders, has touched its every point down to a point
infinitesimally small and bordering on nothing. There
is no small ness however small which He cannot perceive.
There is therefore no limit to His perceptive power.
(2) Every particle is of a relative nature and size. Its
measures to a related perceiving nature depend on the
perceptive power of that nature. But to Him who
created it, it must appear and be known absolutely. He
must therefore be of an absolute nature. (3) Creation
demands infinite power of will. Between nothing and
any solid magnitude, any real existence, the distance is
infinite, and to create something where before there was
nothing is to bridge that distance. No merely relative
power is equal to this work. It demands the energy
of an absolute nature. (4) Creative power is supremely,
is ideally great. No greater is possible. In calling
into being that which before was not, power does
its utmost. It rises to the loftiest height. Higher
power cannot go. No greater work can be done than
it accomplisheth. None harder can be conceived. It is
independent. It needs no external aid. It is absolute.
It does not act on forms of being because it happens
to be exactly related to them. It produces its own
forms.

Our mode of argument, even on the contention that
the universe was built up out of pre-existing materials,
leads to the conclusion that its architect and builder is
infinite and absolute. We have shown that for inter-

174 THE CREATION OF MATTER

action, atom is related to atom, and to the ether, and the
perceiving nature to both ; and that the relationships are
so many and the adjustments of so fine and so remarkable
a nature, that they cannot be ascribed to chance but to
mind. Let us suppose then that the Author of the great
kosmos, instead of being infinite and absolute, had
relationships to material entities and perceiving natures,
enabling Him to use them to purpose. He had perceptive
power capable of perceiving atoms and molecules and
their properties in their fineness and extraordinary
potencies; perceiving natures in their fineness and stiU
more extraordinary powers. He had also the power of
laying hold of and acting on them, of arranging them
according to their relationships and bringing their
capacities into play. He thus had relationships to three
different kinds of entities, in the multitudes of the
relationships, and in the quantities of the entities which
we know. The power to perceive and act on one atom
demanded the nicest adjustments to it, on all atoms the
nicest adjustments to each and all, and so in the case of
the ether and perceiving natures. All the perceiving
natures that have ever been or now are, with their
related capacities adjusted for perceiving and acting on
material elements, show comparatively but a few poor
relationships and adjustments beside the number and
grandeur of those in the mighty mind which built up the
heavens and the earth and the organisations and forms of
life within their borders. Instead, therefore, of account-
ing for the phenomena of the universe by ascribing them
to a finite and related being, possessing limited powers
adjusted to material elements and perceptive powers, and
so rendered capable of acting on them, we multiply
indefinitely the phenomena demanding explanation, and
so greatly increase the necessity for the existence of an

CONCLUSION 175

intelligent cause to account for them. We add to the
multitude of relationships between the three kinds of
entities a still greater number between them and a fourth,
and therefore requiring a fifth to produce them. And if
the fifth be of the same nature, much more is a sixth
required. And the farther we advance the requirement
grows. We are thus led to the conclusion that the
former of all things cannot be finite and relative, and
happening to exist from eternity of a constitution so
richly related and adjusted to three other entities as to
be able to act on them in an infinite variety of ways, but
must be infinite and absolute and able to act on any
nature and in any way whatever.

A finite and related Maker or Builder of the universe
would have been entirely dependent on chance. He
could have done nothing of Himself. He could have
done nothing without finding material elements and
perceiving natures, ordered and related to each other,
and to His own powers, or in such a condition that His
own related powers could bring them into order and
relationship to each other. It was a matter of chance
that He should find a single particle of matter or ether
point or perceiving nature anywhere within His range or
limited sphere of action. It was a matter of contin-
gencies without number that He should find primal
elements sufficient to form the least drop of water, the
least grain of sand. How inconceivably vast the multi-
tude of contingencies involved in His finding them in
quantities sufficient for being built up into a world filled
with organisations and perceiving natures. The depen-
dence on chance, therefore, of such a being would have
been immeasurably, yea, infinitely great. Chance would
have played the all-important part, and the chances
against would have been, not merely as the number of

176 THE CREATION OF MATTER

atoms, ether points, and perceiving natures, but as these
multiplied indefinitely. The conclusion, therefore, is in-
evitable that the Architect and Builder of the universe
is not of limited and related powers, but unlimited and
absolute.

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