196 Scientific Sophisms. 



particles in an undulation ; and the organic, 

 which can change their order, as in a globule that 

 turns itself inside out. What then? When you 

 have to pass from mere sentiency to thought 

 and will, your Theory of Development is as 

 impotent as ever until you have obtained what 

 only a further hypothesis can give a handful 

 of Leibnitz's monads to serve as souls in little. 



" But surely you must observe that this 

 'matter' of yours alters its style with every 

 change of service ; starting as a beggar, with 

 scarce a rag of ' property ' to cover its bones, 

 it turns up as a prince when large undertakings 

 are wanted . . . It is easy travelling through 

 the stages of such a hypothesis ; you deposit 

 at your bank a round sum ere you start, and 

 drawing on it piecemeal at every pause, com- 

 plete your grand tour without a debt." 1 



If now, from fictitious fancies such as these, 

 we turn to the actual facts, we shall find that 

 the whole argument sums itself up in a single 

 remark of Sir William Thomson : " The as- 

 sumption of atoms can explain no property of 

 body which has not previously been attributed 

 to the atoms themselves." 



1 Martineau : " Religion as Affected by Modern Ma- 

 terialism." 



