Inorganic Matter. 1 5 1 



Mr. Spencer's view, continually increasing in com- 

 plexity : system is built up after system, till to 

 conceive the involved combinations of atoms and 

 movements contained in a particle of matter invisible 

 under the microscope, exceeds the utmost power of 

 intelligence. In that molecule lies a little universe. 

 And all this world of order and energy, in which every 

 atom thrills in ceaseless swift vibration, and all groups 

 of atoms balanced in relations internal and external, 

 are being ever more perfectly adjusted in harmony 

 with the end towards which all is moving, lies behind 

 and beneath that visible cosmos which is the field of 

 scientific research. The evolutionist can give no 

 answer to the eager questioning of those who wish 

 to find some reasonable explanation of how there 

 arose, out of a pre-supposed universe of whirling 

 atoms, a cosmos which, at its first appearing in view 

 of science, contains within it all the causes that evolve 

 into the order, beauty, intelligence, and moral and 

 religious feeling known to us. 



Of the world that lies behind the visible, evolution 

 can tell us nothing : yet the visible can never be 

 understood till that world is known ; if final causes 

 be dismissed from thought and a directing intelligence 

 be denied. Every department of physical science 

 runs ultimately into problems of molecular physics. 

 Chemistry, optics, mechanics, mineralogy, physio- 

 logy, all reach in the last resort problems which, 

 if they are to receive a scientific solution, must be 



