286 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



they would not be fluids : and an animal might 

 be so much smaller than a mite, that its tubes 

 could not contain a sufficient collection of the 

 atoms of matter, to carry on its functions. We 

 should, therefore, of necessity reach a limit of 

 minuteness in organic life, if we could demon- 

 strate that matter is composed of such indivisible 

 atoms. We shall not, however, build anything 

 on this argument ; because, though the atomic 

 theory is sometimes said to be proved, what is 

 proved is, that chemical and other effects take 

 place as if they were the aggregate of the effects 

 of certain particles of different elements, the 

 proportions of which particles are fixed and 

 definite ; but that any limit can be assigned to 

 the smallness of these particles, has never yet 

 been made out. We prefer, therefore, to rest 

 the proof of the finite extent of animal life, as to 

 size on the microscopical observations previously 

 referred to. 



Probably we cannot yet be said to have 

 reached the limit of the universe with the power 

 of our telescopes ; that is, it does not appear that 

 telescopes have yet been used, so powerful in 

 exhibiting small stars, that we can assume that 

 more powerful instruments would not discover 

 new stars. Whether or no, however, this degree 

 of perfection has been reached, we have no proof 

 that it does not exist ; if it were once obtained, 

 we should have, with some approximation, the 



