1882. 



ATOMS, MOLECULES, AND ETHER WAVES. 1 



MAN is prone to idealisation. He cannot accept as 

 final the phenomena of the sensible world, but looks 

 behind that world into another which rules the sensible 

 one. From this tendency of the human mind systems 

 ofmythology and scientific theories have equally sprung. 

 By the former the experiences of volition, passion, 

 power, and design, manifested among ourselves, were 

 transplanted, with the necessary modifications, into an 

 unseen universe, from which the sway and potency of 

 these magnified human qualities were exerted. ' In 

 the roar of thunder and in the violence of the storm 

 was felt the presence of a shouter and furious strikers, 

 and out of the rain was created an Indra or giver of 

 rain.' It is substantially the same with science, the 

 principal force of which is expended in endeavouring 

 to rend the veil which separates the sensible world 

 from an ultra-sensible one. In both cases our materials, 

 drawn from the world of the senses, are modified by 

 the imagination to suit intellectual needs. The 'first 

 beginnings ' of Lucretius were not objects of sense, but 

 they were suggested and illustrated by objects of sense. 

 The idea of atoms proved an early want on the part of 

 minds in pursuit of the knowledge of Nature. It has 



1 Written at Alp Lusgen for the first number of Longman's 

 Magazine. 



