260 Scientific Reviews. 



tions, constituting different forms ; and hence result the various 

 kinds of matter we meet with in nature. 



Besides these there are many other subsidiary positions or sup- 

 positions, to which it is unnecessary for us to advert. We are to 

 consider the fundamental position, that the ultimate element of all 

 kinds of ponderable matter is one and the same, and, then, the forms 

 assigned to the various chemical bodies in the work before us. 



We willingly grant the praise of sublimity to the ancient opi- 

 nion, that all ultimate matter is simple and one, and we think that 

 the speculative mind might be so lifted beyond itself by the thought, 

 as to generate conceptions regarding the framer of the universe of 

 the most exalted and heart-purifying character. We are not there- 

 fore opposed to it ; on the contrary, we can occasionally indulge it, 

 and feel ourselves made better by the high and reverend thoughts 

 to which it gives birth. But here we would stop, and we think 

 the man acts idly, and is guilty of wasting time and talents, who, 

 in grappling with this lofty opinion, would bring it down, and con- 

 nect it in detail with the forms and qualities of matter. We have 

 ourselves indulged in theory regarding the atomic constitution of 

 bodies, but we never once equalled ourselves to the daring task of 

 pronouncing, a priori, thus, and thus has nature wrought. We 

 came not down from above to survey the mysteries of the economy 

 of matter, but climbing up by the slow and patient, yet sure me- 

 thod of induction, we endeavoured to find out the limit to which 

 our present strength would carry us, satisfied that what we could 

 not now achieve, future minds more able or more fortunate might 

 possibly accomplish. That man will ever reach that clear and de- 

 finite knowledge which this book pretends to convey, we do not 

 believe, — that he will ultimately come infinitely nearer than his 

 narrowed vision now permits him, we are fully persuaded ; and 

 were it not that we are borne up by the conviction, that the " first 

 bound of the emancipated spirit" will be gladdened by the revela- 

 tion of all the hidden mysteries and machinery of the material uni- 

 verse, we should look forward with envy to future times, and es- 

 teem those men the happiest who lived to see most of what the 

 human mind could do. 



But the truth is that the human mind will never, in this life, be 

 able to compass universal nature. Already has the field of science 

 become too wide for the comprehension of one intellect, and as it 

 stretches out every day still wider, it will become every day more 

 diflSicult to assign general laws to which all phenomena can be re- 

 conciled, Mr. M 'Vicar is a high-minded man, and he possesses a 

 general if not a minute knowledge of natural science, to which few 

 can pretend ; but in the only department, that of atomic chemis- 

 try, which, having vindicated to itself in some measure the title of 

 an exact science, was fitted to put his opinions to the test, we 

 consider him to have completely failed. And he has failed, we 

 conceive, not from lack of talent in himself, but from the utter im-. 



