Scientific Sophisms. 



"strong scientific imagination"), "atoms in- 

 numerable," " falling silently through im- 

 measurable intervals of time and space." l 



" Falling eternally through space : " " falling 

 silently through immeasurable intervals : " but 

 this eternal silence was broken by "great 

 shocks of sound," " the mechanical shock of 

 the atoms ; " l and this eternal falling came to 

 an end when " the interaction of the atoms " a 

 came to a beginning. How came that be- 

 ginning ? Nothing more simple. At first, 

 the atoms, silently falling, fell in parallel 

 lines. After that they began to deflect from 

 the perpendicular. Not all of them ; nor all 

 in the same direction : but only so many, 

 and in so many directions as were necessary 

 to produce " the mechanical shock," and " the 

 interaction." But falling is motion, and matter 

 is inert, and atoms in motion are atoms in 

 which inertness has been overcome by a force 

 external to themselves, and falling atoms are 

 atoms gravitating towards a centre. What 

 centre ? and how originated ? Why should 

 atoms in motion have moved originally all 

 in one direction ? or why should they have 

 ceased to do so ? What, and whence, is that 



" Belfast Address," p. 10. . IMa., p. & 



