MATTER AND FORGE. 38? 
breaking becomes impossible through the very smallness of 
the fragments; the smallest fragment is found endowed 
with two poles, and is, therefore, a perfect magnet. But 
you cannot stop here: you imagine where you cannot ex- 
periment; and reach the conclusion entertained by all 
scientific men, that the magnet which you see and feel is 
an assemblage of molecular magnets which you cannot see 
and feel, but which, as before stated, must be intellectually 
discerned. 
Magnetism then is a polar force; and experience hints 
that a force of this kind may exert a certain structural 
power. It is known, for example, that iron filings strewn 
round a magnet arrange themselves in definite lines, 
called, by some, " magnetic curves," and, by others " lines 
of magnetic force." Over two magnets now before me is 
spread a sheet of paper. Scattering iron filings over the 
paper, polar force comes into play, and every particle of 
the iron responds to that force. We have a kind of archi- 
tectural effort if I may use the term exerted on the part 
of the iron filings. Here then is a fact of experience 
which, as you will see immediately, furnishes further 
material for the mind to operate upon, rendering it possi- 
ble to attain intellectual clearness and repose, while 
speculating upon apparently remote phenomena. 
The magnetic force has here acted upon particles visible 
to the eye. But, as already stated, there are numerous 
processes in nature which entirely elude the eye of the 
body, and must be figured by the eye of the mind. The 
processes of chemistry are examples of these. Long think- 
ing and experimenting has led philosophers to conclude 
that matter is composed of atoms from which, whether 
separate or in combination, the whole material world is 
built up. The air we breathe, for example, is mainly a 
mechanical mixture of the atoms of oxygen and nitrogen. 
The water we drink is also composed of oxygen and hydro- 
gen. But it differs from the air in this particular, that in 
water the oxygen and hydrogen are not mechanically 
mixed, but chemically combined. The atoms of oxygen 
and those of hydrogen exert enormous attractions on each 
other, so that when brought into sufficient proximity they 
rush together witli an almost incredible force to form a 
chemical compound. But powerful as is the force with 
which these atoms lock themselves together, we have the 
