198 Scientific Sophisms. w 



changes its relation to its fellows from chang- 

 ing its relation to the whole removing to the 

 outside ? Such a body, though serving as an 

 element in chemistry, is mechanically com- 

 pound, and has a constitution of its own, 

 which raises as many questions as it answers, 

 and wholly unfits it for offering to the human 

 mind a point of ultimate rest. It has accord- 

 ingly been strictly kept to a penultimate 

 position in the conception of philosophical 

 physicists like Gassendi, Herschel, and Clerk 

 Maxwell, and of masters in the logic of science, 

 like Lotze and Stanley Jevons." 



Nor is it to be overlooked that the sixty-three 

 kinds of atoms are not at liberty to be neutral 

 to one another, or to run an indeterminate round 

 of experiments in association, within the limits 

 of possible permutation. " Each is already 

 provided with its select list of admissible com- 

 panions ; and the terms of its partnership with 

 every one of these are strictly prescribed ; so 

 that not one can modify, by the most trivial 

 fraction, the capital it has to bring. Vainly, 

 for instance, does the hydrogen atom, with its 

 low figure and light weight make overtures to 

 the more considerable oxygen element ; the 

 only reply will be, either none of you or two 

 of you. And so on throughout the list." It is 



