EDITOR'S TABLE. 



1 1 1 



ignorance, and notwithstanding our pro- 

 fessed reverence for its Creator, have 

 hitherto covered with opprobrium, the 

 promise and potency of every form 

 and quality of life." 



Now, what does Prof. Tyndall here 

 mean by prolonging the intellectual vi- 

 sion across the boundary of the experi- 

 mental evidence ? He has defined ex- 

 actly what he means, and given an ex- 

 ample of it in the case of the magnet, 

 whose broken particles exhibit polarity, 

 "and, when we can break no longer, 

 we prolong the intellectual vision to 

 the polar molecules." That is, mole- 

 cules and atoms are not objects of 

 sense, and therefore of experiment, but 

 can be cognized only by the intellect. 

 Prof. Tyndall must leave experiment 

 before he can reach them, as they lie 

 far beyond and below all possibility of 

 ever being reached by that method ; 

 they are objects of inference, hypo- 

 thetical creations, and belong to the 

 world of thought. But can it be pre- 

 tended that they do not also belong to 

 science ? All modern physics and chem- 

 istry have, for their foundation, concep- 

 tions of the molecular constitution of 

 matter. Is the establishment of the 

 great division of molecular physics is 

 the elaboration of that wonderful sys- 

 tem of molecular constructions the 

 " new chemistry " an illegitimate and 

 unscientific mental procedure ? Was the 

 pious Quaker Dalton guilty of break- 

 ing the bounds of science and tres- 

 passing upon the territory of religion, 

 when he passed the limits of experi- 

 mental evidence and reconstructed the 

 atomic theory in accordance with the 

 newly-ascertained laws of chemical ac- 

 tion ? This must have been so if the 

 charge now made against Prof. Tyndall 

 is valid. And if scientific men are 

 not to be allowed to cross the bounda- 

 ries of experimental evidence, and rea- 

 son upon the sub-sensible conditions, 

 powers, and constitution of matter, then 

 there is simply an end to science. 



But this is not all. Prof. Tyndall 

 claims that there is a great deal more, 



in this mysterious and unfathomable 

 something which we call matter, than 

 has been hitherto allowed ; he sees in 

 it " the promise and potency of every 

 form and quality of life." Much horror 

 has been expressed at this statement, 

 but the expressions seem to us quite 

 gratuitous. We should like to know 

 what form or quality of life there is, 

 that is not manifested in matter, and 

 is not, therefore, to be ranked among 

 its potentialities. All living things are 

 material things ; all organized creat- 

 ures are constituted of material ele- 

 ments; and, throughout the scale of 

 life, vital, chemical, and physical pow- 

 ers are correlated in inextricable com- 

 plication, and displayed through a sub- 

 stratum of ponderable constituents. 

 Of the sixty-odd chemical elements, 

 four are chiefly concerned in the main- 

 tenance of life ; they constitute the 

 mass of all living things, and have long 

 been classified as organogens genera- 

 tors of organization. The mutations 

 of these elements involve the cycles of 

 life. Earth, sea, and air, are filled with 

 myriads of vital forms, and through 

 countless millions of years the earth 

 has swarmed with them, while whole 

 rocky systems are made up of their ma- 

 terial remnants. When the microscope 

 was invented, and the frontiers of old 

 observation were crossed, a new world 

 of life was discovered ; and, as the pow- 

 ers of the instrument were improved, 

 minuter creatures were disclosed, grade 

 after grade, until organisms were found 

 not the millionth of an inch in diameter. 

 Those who deny spontaneous genera- 

 tion, or that living beings are directly 

 engendered out of matter, are only able 

 to do so by prolonging their vision be- 

 yond the sensible evidence, and assum- 

 ing that Nature is pervaded by infinitely 

 tenuous, inscrutable, though still mate- 

 rial life-germs. But, whatever the pro- 

 cesses by which Nature breaks into this 

 multitudinous life, it is undoubtedly 

 done through an inflexible system of 

 law. There is no irregularity, caprice, 

 or miracle, about it ; it is a phase of 



