78 From Matter to Man. 



matter on the threshold of production. It is but the 

 shaking of the flour on the baking-table previously 

 to the kneading of the dough and the firing of the 

 loaf. Contrasted with nature's more complex energies, 

 this preliminary law is as the miller filling bags of 

 flour to the baker turning out h's smoking batch of 

 bread. 



Like-material-attraction thus necessarily precedes 

 all other natural forces, for no effect happens in 

 matter unless matter is in a suitable atomic and 

 molecular condition and position. The baker could 

 not bake a loaf with only a sheaf of wheat on his 

 table. Similarly, in the formation of frees'.one, an 

 accumulation of sand is necessary. This sand is 

 accordingly accumulated through the agency of like- 

 material-attraction, aided, doubtless, by accidental 

 causes, and then the other constituent materials and 

 forces combine to convert the sand into stone. 



It only remains to be added that like-material- 

 attraction acts automatically in matter whenever the 

 conditions chance to be suitable ; for the atoms, as 

 automata, are thoroughly intelligent so far as their 

 functions are concerned, and their performance of 

 them is inviolable. No superintending artificer could 

 teach them that which they are quite capable of 

 accomplishing of their own accord ; each has its 

 own work to do, and it does it accurately an 1 

 eternally. 



