380 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
instead of replacing others, and thus renewing a pre-existing 
form, to be gathered first hand from nature and put to- 
gether in the same relative positions as those which they 
occupy in the body. Supposing them to have the self- 
same forces and distribution of forces, the selfsame motions 
and distribution of motions would this organized con- 
course of molecules stand before us as a sentient thinking 
being? There seems no valid reason to believe that it 
would not. Or, supposing a planet carved from the sun, 
set spinning round an axis, and revolving round the sun at 
a distance from him equal to that of our earth, would one 
of the consequences of its refrigeration be the development 
of organic forms? I lean to the affirmative. Structural 
forces are certainly in the mass, whether or not those forces 
reach to the extent of forming a plant or an animal. In 
an amorphous drop of water lie latent all the marvels of 
crystalline force; and who will set limits to the possible 
play of molecules in a cooling planet? If these statements 
startle, it is because matter has been defined and maligned 
by philosophers and theologians, who were equally unaware 
that it is, at bottom, essentially mystical and transcen- 
dental. 
Questions such as these derive their present interest in 
great part from their audacity, which is sure, in due time, 
to disappear. And the sooner the public dread is abolished 
with reference to sucli questions the better for the cause of 
truth. As regards knowledge, physical science is polar. 
In one sense it knows, or is destined to know, everything. 
In another sense it knows nothing. Science understands 
much of this intermediate phase of things that we call 
nature, of which it is the product; but science knows 
nothing of the origin or destiny of nature. Who or what 
made the sun, and gave his rays their alleged power? Who 
or what made and bestowed upon the ultimate particles of 
matter their wondrous power of varied interaction ? Science 
does not know: the mystery, though pushed back remains 
unaltered. To many of us who feel that there are more 
things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in the 
present philosophy of science, but who have been alsq 
taught, by baffled efforts, how vain is the attempt to grapr 
pie with the Inscrutable, the ultimate fran^e pf mind is 
that of Goethe: 
