A CHEMICAL PROLOGUE. 677 



and matter. If in imagination we go back to that early time 

 when our little planet was thrown off from its parent sun, we see, 

 in the nebulous stuff from which it has precipitated, the materials 

 of our own bodies. We are conscious of having had part in that 

 wonderful birth, of having been present at the creation of the 

 earth. It is true that we were very absent-minded at the time, 

 but nevertheless our interest in that little ball of glowing vapor 

 sent whirling off into space was even then a very personal one, 

 for it was the aerial ship that carried our own destinies. If, then, 

 the smallest atom that to-day forms a part of the delicate organ- 

 ism which we hold to be the tool of an indwelling spirit, has ex- 

 isted from all time, and is pledged to all eternity, it is difficult for 

 the student of nature to conceive that the intellect which has 

 given worth and dignity to this otherwise inanimate mass of 

 matter should not be equally enduring. He is led to believe in 

 an immortality of spirit which has known no beginning and will 

 know no end. He is brought to what may be called the doctrine 

 of the conservation of soul. 



It has been a dream of poets and philosophers that there is in 

 all the universe but one true element, and that the so-called ele- 

 ments what we know as gold and silver, copper and iron, hydro- 

 gen and oxygen are but modifications of this one primordial unit. 

 The chemists of the nineteenth century are turning poets and 

 dreaming this dream over again. What would have been scorned 

 but a few years ago as alchemists' madness is now orthodox 

 science. It is hard to believe that such a heavy, infusible metal 

 as platinum has anything in common with a light, combustible 

 gas like hydrogen ; but, when we come to think about it, it is still 

 harder to believe that the two are unrelated. When it is found 

 that such dissimilar substances as charcoal, graphite, and diamond 

 are chemically identical, it is quite possible to believe that all the 

 elements are the products of a chemical evolution that has per- 

 haps started with the element " helium," which the spectroscope 

 discloses in the atmosphere of the sun. Thus the belief in the 

 essential unity of the universe grows apace, and the cosmic 

 drama gains in wonder as it gains in simplicity. What Goethe 

 has called " the open secret of the universe " stares every man in 

 the face. As one follows the wonderful story of its mode of be- 

 coming, and traces the far-reaching harmonies and relations, he 

 is moved to exclaim with the devout Kepler, " O God, I think 

 over again thy thoughts after thee ! " 



These considerations by the way, have for their sole purpose 

 the indication of what I feel to be the rational mode of approach 

 to the study of chemistry. It is a science so competent to become 

 a means of keen intellectual pleasure and a stimulus to the most 

 profound thinking, that its neglect by all but special students 



