176 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



of power, of immensity, of order, and of flux. 

 These are probably the most widespread and 

 fundamental impressions, but every open-eyed 

 observer to-day has doubtless others that have 

 meant much to him in the way both of stimulus 

 and of mental furniture. 



There is the impression of wealth, exuberance, 

 and manifoldness. Star differs from star in glory 

 and their numbers are beyond reckoning; every 

 mountain, every stream, has its individuality; 

 there are over eighty different kinds of chemical 

 elements; the number of minerals is legion; there 

 are four hundred and forty-two species of birds 

 in the list for the small islands of Great Britain 

 and Ireland; and there is many a class of animals 

 that has far more different species than we see of 

 stars on a clear night. 



An allied impression is that of intricacy. As 

 President Jordan says, "The simplest organism 

 we know is far more complex than the consti- 

 tution of the United States." The body of an 

 ant is many times more intricate visibly intri- 

 cate than a steam-engine; its brain, as Darwin 

 said, is perhaps the most marvellous speck of 

 matter in the universe. The physicists tell us 

 that the behaviour of hydrogen gas makes it 

 necessary to suppose that an atom of it must 

 have a constitution as complex as a constellation, 

 with about eight hundred separate corpuscles. 



