PART SECOND. 



MATTER, FORCE, AND LIFE. 



CHAPTER I. 



MATTER. 



Evils and their Remedy Matter a Mystery Solid, Liquid, Gaseous 

 Atoms and Molecules No Contact of Atoms Expansion, Contrac- 

 tion, Elasticity, Vibration Size of Atoms Microscopic Wonders 

 Elementary Bodies and their Combinations The Earth The Chief 

 Elements of Nature Points of Force. 



IN Part First of this volume I have treated briefly of the 

 actual condition of man in the highest civilisation to which he 

 has attained, and shown that millions of the population of this 

 country are subject to preventable diseases, and preventable 

 mortality, beyond all other species of animals; that infant 

 mortality and infanticide destroy nearly half the population, 

 and more than half in certain classes and conditions; that 

 ignorance and poverty produce vice, drunkenness, crime, and 

 misery; and that the hardships of the poor and the slavery of 

 women culminate in prostitution and its consequences. The 

 way out of this strange conglomeration of moral and physical 

 evils may, I believe, be found in a knowledge of the nature 

 and destiny of man, with, of course, obedience to laws, and 

 their enforcement, when needful, after they have once been 

 ascertained. We are to govern ourselves as we would govern 



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