38 Evolution of Life and Form. 



of the universe than is common among scientists. 

 It is gradually finding out that these atoms are 

 things that are built up gradually, and that the 

 qualities of atoms are not fixed, but are properties 

 that change with every difference of conditions. 

 Late investigations have shown that when chemical 

 bodies are submitted to extraordinary conditions 

 of cold such cold as makes the air into a liquid 

 and solidifies hydrogen and oxygen they suffer 

 the destruction of their supposedly permanent pro- 

 perties. It is proved that, as these conditions are 

 changed, and as lower and lower ranges of temper- 

 ature are brought to bear upon these chemical 

 elements, one by one their eternal properties dis- 

 appear, and they lie there changed in their activities, 

 and lose the characteristic traits which enabled 

 them to be discovered as parts of the moving 

 world. Downward and downward falls the tem- 

 perature, property after property disappears, until 

 science asks, bewildered, what will happen when we 

 reach the absolute zero, what will then become of 

 the properties of matter, what will remain of the 

 characteristics of the elements ? Is there not but 

 one Matter, and are not all chemical elements but 

 modifications, aggregations, of this one ultimate 

 matter? Similarly with Force, modern science 

 has made the magnificent generalisation that all 



