160 ESSAYS BIOGRAPHICAL AND CHEMICAL 



mate matter, but is itself undergoing change into a simpler 

 form of matter. 



The young student, when he learns what is known, is 

 too apt to think that little is left to be discovered ; yet all 

 our progress since the time of Sir Isaac Newton has not 

 falsified the saying of that great man that we are but 

 children picking up here and there a pebble from the 

 shore of knowledge, while a whole unknown ocean stretches 

 before our eyes. Nothing can be more certain than this : 

 that we are just beginning to learn something of the 

 wonders of the world on which we live and move and 

 have our being. 



