ATOM. 



lula^on the oocwUnU of one molecule and those of another, we are forced 

 >tttrlulc that it u not to the operation of any of these processes that the 

 unifurmit v of the constant* is dua 



The formation of the molecule is therefore an event not belonging to that 

 tinier of nature under which we live. It is an operation of a kind which is 

 not, * fiu- at we are aware, going on on earth or in the sun or the stars, 

 cither now or since these bodies began to be formed. It must be referred to 

 the epoch, not of the formation of the earth or of the solar system, but of 

 the estnbluihment of the existing order of nature, and till not only these 



n rj old r of nature tta It' i> dinolved, \\v haw 

 no reMon to expect the occurrence of any operation of a similar kind. 



In the present state of science, therefore, we have strong reasons for be- 

 liering that in a molecule, or if not hi a molecule, in one of its component 

 atoms, we have something which has existed either from eternity or at least 

 from times anterior to the existing order of nature. But besides this atom, 

 there are immense numbers of other atoms of the same kind, and the constants 

 of each of these atoms are incapable of adjustment by any process now in 

 action. Each is physically independent of all the others. 



Whether or not the conception of a multitude of beings existing from all 

 eternity is in itself self-contradictory, the conception becomes palpably absurd 

 when we attribute a relation of quantitative equality to all these beings. We 

 are then forced to look beyond them to some common cause or common origin 

 to explain why this singular relation of equality exists, rather than any one 

 of the infinite number of possible relations of inequality. 



Science is incompetent to reason upon the creation of matter itself out 

 <>f nothing. We have reached the utmost limit of our thinking faculties when 

 we have admitted that, because matter cannot be eternal and self-existent, it 

 must have been created. It is only when we contemplate not matter in itself, 

 but the form in which it actually exists, that our mind finds something on 

 which it can lay hold. 



That matter, as such, should have certain fundamental properties, that it 

 should have a continuous existence in space and time, that all action should 

 he between two portions of matter, and so on, are truths which may, for 

 aught we know, be of the kind which metaphysicians call necessary. We may 

 uw our knowledge of such truths for purposes of deduction, but we have no 

 data for speculating on their origin. 



