Matter. 45 



prevail. On earth those elements most needed for 

 maintaining the present conditions and manifestations 

 of earthly existence predominate; but whether the 

 actual distribution of material and existing evolution 

 of mundane conditions have been specially brought 

 about by an Intelligent World-maker solely for the 

 present manifestations of mundane existence and His 

 own glory, or all earthly phenomena and organisms 

 are merely the chance products of the chance con- 

 ditions of a chance planet, are problems plainly 

 unfolded in the sequel. 



Section 2. Atoms and their Properties : 



The notion that matter is composed of and may be 

 reduced to atoms dates from the infancy of philo- 

 sophical speculation. Proved true by scientific ex- 

 periment to-day, it was equally so when, by guess- 

 work, Leucippus and Democritus broached their 

 atomic theories ; and yet, until our own day no 

 school of philosophy has sensibly extended the far- 

 sighted conceptions of those ancient Grecians. 



At present scientists wrangle over the two hypo- 

 theses of discontinuous and continuous matter, or the 

 hard atoms of Lucretius and the vortex atoms of 

 Helmholtz and Lord Kelvin already mentioned. 

 The latter theory is in its infancy, and so far as it is 

 explicable (we do not say intelligible) is as follows : — 



"The substance of existence is a primitive fluid, 

 part of which is inert and part rotates. The inert 

 part is everlastingly inert, and the rotating part ever- 



