ANTAGONISM OF FORCES. 407 



rapture, the holiest trance of poetic conception, dreamed 

 of any natural truths so sublime as those which science 

 has revealed to us. 



The dependence of all the systems of worlds upon 

 each other, every dust composing each individual globe 

 being "weighed in a balance/' the adjustment of the 

 powers by which every physical condition is ordered, the 

 disposition of matter in the mass of the earth, and the 

 close relation of the kingdoms of nature, are all reve- 

 lations of natural truths, exalting the mind to the divine 

 conception of the universe. 



There is a remarkable antagonism displayed in the 

 operation of many of these forces. Gravitation and 

 cohesion act in opposition to the repellent influences of 

 caloric. Light and heat are often associated in a very 

 remarkable manner; but they are certainly in their 

 radiant states in antagonism to chemical action, whether 

 produced by the direct agency of actinic force, or through 

 the intermediate excitement of the electrical current.* 

 And in relation to chemical force, as manifested in or- 

 ganic combinations, we have the all-powerful operation 

 of LIFE preventing any exercise of its decomposing 

 power, f As world is balanced against world in the 



* This may be readily proved by the following simple but in- 

 structive experiment : Take two pairs of watch-glasses; into one 

 pair put a solution of nitrate of silver, into the other a weak so- 

 lution of iodide of potassium ; connect the silver solution of each 

 pair with the potash one by a film of cotton, and carry a platina 

 wire from one glass into the other. Place one series in sunshine, 

 and the other in a dark place. After a few hours it will be found 

 that the little galvanic arrangement in the dark will exhibit, around 

 the platina wire, a very pretty crystallization of metallic silver, 

 but no such change is observable in the other exposed to light. 

 If a yellow glass is interposed between the glass and the sunshine, 

 the action proceeds as when in the dark. This experiment is 

 naturally suggestive of many others, and it involves some most 

 important considerations. 



f In cases of violent death it is often found the gastric juice 

 lias, in a few hours, dissolved portions of the stomach. Dr. Budd's 

 Lecture before the College of Physicians. 



