Ancient and Modern Science. 



fact, that the greatest work of science has been the 

 generalisations that have been suggested in the 

 attempt to reach simplicity, to reduce multiplicity 

 to unity. How far has science gone from that 

 generally accepted view of the materialistic school 

 of thirty years ago, that the universe is made up of 

 an indefinite number of atoms, the atoms being our 

 chemical elements ! A phrase from one of the 

 most famous of the then leading men of science, Dr. 

 Ludwig Biichner, will mark the greatness of the 

 change : he declared that the carbon atom will 

 always remain a carbon atom, and has been a 

 carbon atom from all eternity ; that the hydrogen 

 atom from all eternity has been a hydrogen atom, 

 and to all eternity a hydrogen atom it will remain ; 

 for atoms with their properties are indestructible, 

 and are therefore eternal. What man of science 

 would dare to allege that to-day, knowing that he 

 would be laughed to scorn by all his scientific 

 brethren ; who would say that these atoms are 

 eternally of the same nature as they have till now 

 been made out to be? What is science in fact, 

 doing as to the atom? It is finding in what is 

 called the atom a composite body, a compound, 

 not an element. This discovery is chiefly due to 

 the researches of Sir William Crookes, who is 

 guided in his investigations by a deeper philosophy 



