106 SELECTED ESSAYS FROM LAY SERMONS 



complex body, protoplasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the 

 phenomena of life. 



I see no break in this series of steps in molecular compli- 

 cation, and I am miable to understand why the language 

 which is applicable to any one term of the series may not be 

 used to any of the others. We think fit to call different kinds 

 of matter carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, and to 

 speak of the various powers and activities of these sub- 

 stances as the properties of the matter of which they are 

 composed. 



When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in a certain pro- 

 portion, and an electric spark is passed through them, they 

 disappear, and a quantity of water, equal in weight to the 

 sum of their weights, appears in their place. There is not 

 the slightest parity between the passive and active powers 

 of the water and those of the oxygen and hydrogen which 

 have given rise to it. At 32° Fahrenheit, and far below that 

 temperature, oxygen and hydrogen are elastic gaseous 

 bodies, whose particles tend to rush away from one another 

 with great force. Water, at the same temperature, is a 

 strong though brittle solid, whose particles tend to cohere 

 into definite geometrical shapes, and sometimes build up 

 frosty imitations of the most complex forms of vegetable 

 foliage. 



Nevertheless wt call these, and many other strange phe- 

 nomena, the properties of the water, and we do not hesitate 

 to believe that, in some way or another, they result from the 

 properties of the component elements of the water. We do 

 not assume that a something called "aquosity" entered into 

 and took possession of the oxidated hydrogen as soon as it 

 was formed, and then guided the aqueous particles to their 

 places in the facets of the crystal, or amongst the leaflets of 

 the hoar-frost. On the contrary, we live in the hope and in 



