THE RADIOMETER. 19 



is that this new instrument, although disappointing the first expecta- 

 tions of its discoverer, has furnished a very striking confirmation of 

 this wonderful theory. Indeed, the confirmation is so remote and yet 

 so close, so unexpected and yet so strong, that the new phenomena 

 almost seem to be a direct manifestation of the molecular motion which 

 our theory assumes ; and when a new discovery thus confirms the ac- 

 curacy of a previous generalization, and gives us additional reason to 

 believe that the glimpses we have gained into the order of Nature are 

 trustworthy, it excites, with reason, among scientific scholars the warm- 

 est interest. 



And when we consider the vast scope of the molecular theory, the 

 order on order of existences which it opens to the imagination, how can 

 we fail to be impressed with the position in which it places man midway 

 between the molecular cosmos on the one side and the stellar cosmos 

 on the other a position in which he is able in some measure, at least, 

 to study and interpret both ? 



Since the time to which we referred at the beginning of this lecture, 

 when man's dwelling-place was looked at as the centre of a creation 

 which was solely subservient to his wants, there has been a reaction to 

 the opposite extreme, and we have heard much of the utter insignifi- 

 cance of the earth in a universe among whose immensities all human 

 belongings are but as a drop in the ocean. When now, however, we 

 learn from Sir William Thomson that the drop of water in our compari- 

 son is itself a universe, consisting of units so small that, were the drop 

 magnified to the size of the earth, these units would not exceed in mag- 

 nitude a cricket-ball, 1 and when, on studying chemistry, we still further 

 learn that these units are not single masses but systems of atoms, we 

 may leave the illusions of the imagination from the one side to correct 

 those from the other, and all will teach us the great lesson that man's 

 place in Nature is not to be estimated by relations of magnitude, but 

 by the intelligence which makes the whole creation his own. 



But, if it is man's privilege to follow both the atoms and the stars in 

 their courses, he finds that while thus exercising the highest attributes 

 of his nature he is ever in the presence of an immeasurably superior in- 

 telligence, before which he must bow and adore, and thus come to him 

 both the assurance and the pledge of a kinship in which his only real 

 glory can be found. 



1 Nature, No. 22, March 31, 1870. 



