SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM. 403 
shape, to assume definite forms in obedience to the 
definite action of force, is, as I have said, all-pervading. 
It is in the ground on which you tread, in the water you 
drink, in the air you breathe. Incipient life, as it were, 
manifests itself throughout the whole of what we call inor- 
ganic nature. 
The forms of the minerals resulting from this play of 
polar forces are various, and exhibit different degrees of 
complexity. Men of science avail themselves of all possible 
means of exploring their molecular architecture. For this 
purpose they employ in turn, as agents of exploration, 
light, heat, magnetism, electricity, and sound. Polarized 
light is especially useful and powerful here. A beam of 
such light, when sent in among the molecules of a crystal, 
is acted on by them, and from this action we infer with 
more or less clearness the manner in which the molecules 
are arranged. That differences, for example, exist between 
the inner structure of rocksaltand that of crystallized sugar 
or sugar-candy, is thus strikingly revealed. These actions 
often display themselves in chromatic phenomena of great 
splendor, the play of molecular force being so regulated 
as to cause the removal of some of the colored constituents 
of white light, while others are left with increased intensity 
behind. 
And now let us pass from what we are accustomed to 
regard as a dead mineral, to a living grain of corn. When 
this is examined by polarized light, chromatic phenomena 
similar to those noticed in crystals are observed. And 
why? Because the architecture of the grain resembles that 
of the crystal. In the grain also the molecules are set in 
definite positions, and in accordance with their arrange- 
ment they act upon the light. But what has built together 
the molecules of the corn? Regarding crystalline archi- 
tecture, I have already said that you may, if you please, 
consider the atoms and molecules to be placed in position 
by a Power external to themselves. The same hypothesis 
is open to you now. But if in the case of crystals you have 
rejected this notion of an external architect, 1 think you 
are bound to reject it in the case of the grain, and to con- 
clude that the molecules of the corn, also, are posited by 
the forces with which they act upon each other. It would 
be poor philosophy to invoke an external agent in the one 
case, and to reject it in the other. 
