HISTOEY OF THE ATOMIC THEORY. 245 



but this is not a place for my own views : I have referred to 

 what may be called the practical atom, or the smallest amount 

 that unites. 



Is then chemistry scientifically disposed of by this theory ? 

 as well might we say that Newton exhausted the heavens of 

 its knowledge. Year after year will furnish us with marvel- 

 lous truths, nor can we believe that centuries or millenaries 

 will exhaust God*s wisdom in the earth. Already has Davy's 

 aluminum, a brittle useless powder not quite pure, turned a 

 beautiful metal, and the slippery mud of a clayey soil been assi- 

 milated to " shining silver." The atomic theory may be further 

 analyzed, and under its simple laws may be found another 

 which will not only include all we now have, but a host of 

 others still unsuspected ; the time may even come when a new 

 chemistry will be revealed to us, a world under our present 

 elements, when every element will be convulsed and shaken 

 into fragments, by powers which nature will put into our hands; 

 but even that does not destroy the laws of the present. Even 

 when that scientific convulsion comes, we can scarcely doubt 

 that the elements will break up, well proportioned and accord- 

 ing to regular laws, if they break into fragments at all. But 

 this stratum of our knowledge cannot be annihilated by any 

 under stratum ; what we have found is true, whatever higher 

 truths may overpower us with their splendour. When these 

 truths come let us receive them openly and willingly, giving 

 them encouragement instead of envious repulsion, knowing, in 

 fact, that they must come, and rather let us make an occasional 

 mistake in harbouring a mere mortal, than lose the opportunity 

 of an angel for a guest. There are incredulous fools who have 

 made the world's throbbing heart a blank to them, lest they 

 should perhance at times be cheated. There have been mad- 

 men who have refused to eat, lest they should be poisoned. 



These reflections naturally arise on considering the manner 

 in which Dal ton's discovery was reviewed. It cannot be 

 denied, however, that the time being nearly ripe was the 



