1882. 

 ATOMS, MOLECULES, AND ETHER WAVES* 



MAN is prone to idealisation. He cannot accept as 

 final the phenomena of the sensible world, but 

 looks behind that world into another which rules the 

 sensible one. From this tendency of the human mind 

 systems of mythology and scientific theories have equal- 

 ly sprung. By the former the experiences of volition, 

 passion, power, and design, manifested among ourselves, 

 were transplanted, with the necessary modifications into 

 an unseen universe, from which the sway and potency 

 of these magnified human qualities were exerted. " In 

 the roar of thunder and in the violence of the storm 

 was felt the presence of a shouter and furious strikers, 

 and out of the rain was created an Indra or giver of 

 rain." It is substantially the same with science, the 

 principal force of which is expended in endeavouring 

 to rend the veil which separates the sensible world 

 from an ultra-sensible one. In both cases our materials, 

 drawn from the world of the senses, are modified by 

 the imagination to suit intellectual needs. The "first 

 beginnings " of Lucretius were not objects of sense, but 

 they were suggested and illustrated by objects of sense. 

 The idea of atoms proved an early want on the part of 

 minds in pursuit of the knowledge of Nature. It has 



* Written at Alp Lusgen for the first number of Longman's 



Magazine. 



78 



