THE ATOMS OF THE ELEMENTS. 



25 



a I 8 



P * 



gL^I 



melting-point of the elements, and make 

 a similar diagram (Fig. 3). You get 

 a curve remarkably like the first one, 

 with this exception, that the elements 

 which were at the top of the first curve 

 are now at the bottom. The melting- 

 point curve is as strictly periodic as the 

 volume curve and of the same general 

 shape. Notice the regular irregularity 

 of the two curves, and notice also, if 

 you will, that there is not only a peri- 

 odicity but a double periodicity, as 

 shown in the little hump on the slope 

 of each hill of the curve. Similar 

 curves may be constructed for many 

 other properties. Can we imagine, 

 then, that these atoms, these little in- 

 visibilities, in which we all live and 

 move and have our being, are separately 

 created, arbitrarily made, unrelated in- 

 dividuals ? Hardly so, for they are ob- 

 viously created in accordance with 

 some scheme. Would that we might 

 understand this scheme all and in all! 

 It would be a veritable glimpse be- 

 hind the veil of existence. But if we 

 cannot read from Alpha to Omega, we 

 may spell out what we can, leaving fu- 

 ture letters for future men; perforce 

 content that if in this cryptogram of 

 the universe we know indubitably that 

 there is a cryptogram to be read, we 

 have at least come to the beginnings of 

 knowledge. 



