328 LAUGEL'S PROBLEMS OF NATURE AND LIFE. 



physical science. We might, indeed, plunge into mys- 

 teries here also, if seeking for a definition of Matter in 

 the abstract, and that relation of its existence to the 

 percipient mind which has been the metaphysical 

 wrangle of ages. When Mr. Mill somewhere defines 

 it as the * permanent possibility of sensation,' we see, 

 though dimly, what he means, but gain nothing by the 

 definition. Fortunately, experimental science is seldom 

 led far astray by the vague phrases of philosophy. 



It regards matter in a real sense, as made up of 

 parts or atoms of inconceivable minuteness and mobi- 

 lity each atom, whatever its elementary nature, having 

 its individual properties and relations to others, whether 

 similar or dissimilar in kind which properties and re- 

 lations, brought into action by what we call forces, 

 from within or without, give origin to all the motions, 

 changes, and endless combinations and forms, living 

 and lifeless, which we see around us. In saying this, 

 we are denoting what is the true foundation of Che- 

 mistry that great science which, while embracing 

 some of the most important objects of human research, 

 practical as well as purely scientific, is now so closely 

 blended by correlation with other sciences that all limit 

 is lost, even to a definition. The phenomena of elec- 

 tricity those of light and heat in their innumerable 

 aspects animal and vegetable physiology even astro- 

 nomy and the mechanical sciences, and, yet more, all 

 the practical arts, are thus interwoven with chemistry 

 a union continually advancing with the advance of 

 knowledge ; as must of necessity be the case in a 

 science based on the elementary parts and niotions of 



