THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 177 



not believe this in the strict sense of the word (which would 

 imply that the process of creation or annihilation was clearly 

 represented in consciousness), they still believed that they 

 believed it ; and how nearly, in their confused thoughts, the 

 one was equivalent to the other, is shown by their conduct. 

 Nor, indeed, have dark ages and inferior minds alone be- 

 trayed this belief. The current theology, in its teachings 

 respecting the beginning and end of the world, is clearly 

 pervaded by it; and it may be even questioned whether 

 Shakespeare, in his poetical anticipation of a time when 

 all things shall disappear and " leave not a wrack behind," 

 was not under its influence. The gradual accumula- 



tion of experiences, however, and still more the organization 

 of experiences, has tended slowly to reverse this conviction ; 

 until now, the doctrine that Matter is indestructible has be- 

 come a commonplace. All the apparent proofs that some- 

 thing can come out of nothing, a wider knowledge has one 

 by one cancelled. The comet that is suddenly discovered 

 in the heavens and nightly waxes larger, is proved not to 

 be a newly-created body, but a body that was until lately 

 beyond the range of vision. The cloud which in the course 

 of a few minutes forms in the sky, consists not of substance 

 that has just begun to be, but of substance that previously 

 existed in a more diffused and transparent form. And 

 similarly with a crystal or precipitate in relation to the fluid 

 depositing it. Conversely, the seeming annihilations of 

 Matter turn out, on closer observation, to be only changes of 

 state. It is found that the evaporated water, though it has 

 become invisible, may be brought by condensation to its 

 original shape. The discharged fowling-piece gives evi- 

 dence that though the gunpowder has disappeared, there 

 have appeared in place of it certain gases, which, in assuming 

 a larger volume, have caused the explosion. Not, 



however, until the rise of quantitative chemistry, could the 

 conclusion suggested by such experiences be harmonized 

 with all the facts. When, having ascertained not only the 



