ORIGIN OF FORMS OF MATTER. 23 



Therefore, in seeking the origin and 

 nature of the various forms now existing 

 of matter, we may begin at the atomic 

 stage ; we may take the atoms as the 

 starting point. And we will take it for 

 granted that these atoms have innate 

 attraction and repulsion, affections so to 

 say, the " loves and hates of the atoms " 

 as they have been called, which I believe 

 betoken the potency, incipiency, and 

 promise of life and mind. The atoms 

 themselves may perhaps be destitute of 

 sensation and without intelligence, but 

 they may possess the potency and promise 

 of both. Attraction and repulsion, it is 

 granted they have ; and these may possibly 

 be susceptibe of development into both 

 sensation and intelligence, as they are 

 into motion and force, heat, light, elec- 

 tricity, and magnetism. 



To begin with, then, let us follow the 

 chemists in supposing that two of the 

 atoms of the original matter became attract- 

 ed to one another, and that they united 

 and formed a molecule of one of the simple 

 substances which chemists call " elements," 

 viz.j hydrogen. Hydrogen, then, is sup- 

 posed to be made up of binary atoms of 

 primitive matter ; and these must, of 



