WITH THE DOMAIN OF THE INORGANIC 67 



binations of lines and colours that are not beautiful are not 

 uncommon, whereas in the organic realm the non-beautiful 

 is extremely rare, the reason being that beauty is correlated 

 with individuality. 



If we assume the external independence of what we call 

 matter and regard it as the building-stone of the world, 

 those of us who are not chemists and physicists must make 

 an effort to rid ourselves of any picture of it as gross and 

 inert. How much matter is invisible like the air ! How 

 much is transparent like the water! How tenuous is the 

 film of the soap-bubble! How much is ever passing from 

 phase to phase like an elusive genie! Those who are in- 

 clined to think meanly of matter should look again at its 

 magnificence in the starry heavens and at its exquisiteness 

 in the miniature architecture of snow-crystals. We must also 

 bear in mind how finely it lends itself to Life's purposes 

 the fashioning of a feather, the sculpturing of a shell, the 

 casting within the bud of those blue bells which ring every 

 day by the wayside. 



But when we pass from ordinary sight to scientific vision, 

 how subtle and ethereal matter becomes ! What pictures 

 modern physics gives us of a restless activity suggestive of 

 life! 



Matter is thought of as consisting of unit particles or 

 molecules, which move freely with great velocity in gases, 

 and these molecules are thought of as consisting of several 

 atoms which exist in specific and constant configurations. 

 Until 1896 atoms were regarded as the ultimate building- 

 stones of the material universe, but it has since been sug- 

 gested that an integration of hundreds of thousands of elec- 

 trons might form an atom or form a revolving halo around 

 an atom. The study of radium has led to the view that the 



