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, I 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 

 ease, and to reject it in the other. 



