THE BREATH OF LIFE 



out at us in the form of electrons from glowing 

 metals, from lighted candles, and from other noise- 

 less and unsuspected batteries at a speed of tens of 

 thousands of miles a second, and we are none the 

 wiser for it. Indeed, if we could see or feel or be 

 made aware of it, in what a different world we 

 should find ourselves ! How many million- or bil- 

 lion-fold our sense of sight and touch would have 

 to be increased to bring this about! We live in a 

 world of collisions, disruptions, and hurtling mis- 

 siles of which our senses give us not the slightest 

 evidence, and it is well that they do not. There is 

 a tremendous activity in the air we breathe, in the 

 water we drink, in the food we eat, and in the soil 

 we walk upon, which, if magnified till our senses 

 could take it in, would probably drive us mad. It 

 is in this interior world of molecular activity, this 

 world of electric vibrations and oscillations, that 

 the many transformations of energy take place. 

 This is the hiding-place of the lightning, of the elec- 

 trons which moulded together make the thunder- 

 bolt. What an underworld of mystery and power it 

 is! In it slumbers all the might and menace of the 

 storm, the power that rends the earth and shakes 

 the heavens. With the mind's eye one can see the 

 indivisible atoms giving up their electrons, see the 

 invisible hosts, in numbers beyond the power of 

 mathematics to compute, being summoned and 

 marshalled by some mysterious commander and 

 202 



