ATOMIC THEOEY. 413 



laws designed by a Creator whose wisdom and power we 

 recognise in all their wonderful results. 



Experimental Chemistry is the portal through which access 

 has been found to this new region of enquiry. A few con- 

 siderations will make this clear to our readers ; and it is 

 important to the understanding of the subject that it should 

 be so. Whatever reasons might be afforded by the obvious 

 changes of material bodies for the atomic theory of their 

 constitution, no absolute proof could be derived from such 

 phenomena. It was a strong presumption of the existence 

 of minute, perhaps indivisible, molecules ; but did not go 

 beyond this. The discovery of fixed multiple relations of 

 weight or volume in all chemical combinations, was the fact 

 which at once substituted a science for a mere probability ; 

 and converted an hypothesis, barren of results, into a system 

 and law of nature, fertile beyond any other in its consequences 

 and conclusions. 



We would especially dwell on the effects produced by the 

 admission of weight, as a principle and instrument in this 

 research. The fate of Chemistry, as the science mainly con- 

 cerned, may be said to have hung upon the balance. We are 

 now so accustomed to the method of numbers and weights, 

 that it is not easy to recognise this science as ever existing 

 without it. Yet such in great measure was the fact. To 

 Lavoisier, almost a contemporary, we mainly owe the intro- 

 duction of the principle and its right application; at once 

 subverting theories like that of Phlogiston, which had grown 

 up without this correction, and laying the foundations of 

 new and more certain knowledge. It is easy to discover in 

 this change the basis of the doctrine of definite proportions. 

 If in the relations of bodies to one another we find the 

 weight of those entering into combination, or separating from 

 it, to be absolutely and invariably the same for each, the 

 principle is already obtained, and prepared for extension to 



