MATTER. 3 



" The matter of the world may be classified under two distinct 

 heads, that of dead and living atoms. All atoms were once 

 alivi-, but having exhausted their force in attracting other atoms 

 in forming granite, limestone and metals, they are dead and 

 cannot live again." This is manifestly incorrect, for by a 

 simple experiment we can show that if these granites or metals 

 were pulverized, mixed with vegetable atoms, and seeds were 

 planted in them, and well watered, the atoms would show 

 themselves alive by dissolving and aiding in producing a plant 

 and probably a flower. Or they could be so mixed with other 

 substances, that they would assist in blasting the hardest iron 

 stone. There is no such thing as a dead atom. All atoms are 

 alive or have inherent life properties, but they must occupy 

 certain positions and conditions in order to show their vitality. 



Prof. W. A. Norton in the American Journal of Science for 

 1872 endeavors to show that there may be only one kind of 

 matter, and one form of force governing it. Matter is of three 

 varieties, he says : " Ordinary or gross matter, directly 

 recognized by our senses ; universal or luminiferous ether, 

 filling all space ; and electric ether, associated with all bodies of 

 ordinary matter." He thinks however that they are all formed 

 from luminiferous ether. The force which governs this matter 

 is a law of repulsion. As the fact of an attractive power 

 cannot however be denied, he seems to imply it is caused by 

 the repulsive power of the atoms being so feeble that they 

 attract each other ! Rather a Quixotic mode of reasoning. 



It would baffle him to explain how any phenomenon of nature 

 is caused, and how any product of the earth grows, by the 

 operation of the law of repulsion alone. 



In the " Vestiges of Crealion " we are told that matter was 



