PART II. 

 THE PERIODIC LAW. 



CHAPTER if 



THE MYSTERY OF MATTER. 



We believe we must believe, in this day that everything 

 in God's universe of world and stars is made of atoms, in 

 quantities x, y or z respectively. Men and women, mice 

 and elephants, the red belts of Jupiter and the rings of Sat- 

 urn are one and all are but ever shifting, ever varying, 

 swarms of atoms. Every mechanical work of earth, air, 

 fire and water, every criminal act, every human deed of 

 love or valor: what is it all, pray, but the relation of one 

 swarm of atoms to another ? 



Here, for example, is a swarm of atoms, vibrating, scin- 

 tillant, martial, they call it a soldier, and, anon, some 

 thousands of miles away upon the South African veldt, that 

 swarm dissolves, dissolves, forsooth, because of another 

 little swarm, they call it lead. 



What a phantasmagoric dance it is, this dance of atoms ! 

 And what a task for the Master of the Ceremonies. For 

 mark you the mutabilities of things. These same atoms, 

 maybe, or others like them, come together again, vibrating, 

 clustering, interlocking, combining, and there results a 

 woman, a flower, a blackbird or a locust, as the case may 

 be. But to-morrow again the dance is ended and the 



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