* .MJRAL;E:S : OF SCIENCE 



.sleeks that .lie thousands of times beyond 

 the naked-eye* vision." "Then he analyzes the smallest 

 visible speck into billions of molecules; and dissects 

 each molecule into its component atoms; and each 

 atom into a miniature planetary system of perhaps 

 1,800 electrons. Billions of billions of these electrons 

 could find lodgment on that disputed resting place for 

 the feet of mediaeval angels the point of a needle. 

 Yet the physicist measures these unthinkably minute 

 units of matter; weighs them; tests the speed of their 

 flight and the quantity and quality of the electric 

 charge they bear. 



And this also seems miraculous, nay is miraculous. 

 It is surpassingly wonderful. 



Again the biologist juggles with life in a way hither- 

 to supposed impossible. He causes unfertilized germ 

 cells to grow and develop. He splits the embryo of 

 a living animal into two parts, four parts, eight parts, 

 and produces two or four or eight living creatures 

 from an egg that seemed predestined to produce but 

 one. He cuts pieces of tissue from a dead chicken, 

 puts them in his artificial incubator and causes them 

 to take on new life. 



If that does not savor of the miraculous, words 

 must have changed their meanings. 



These things, then, and their like are miracles of 

 modern science. They differ from the fabled miracles 

 of tradition in that they are not done in defiance of 

 law, but in the investigation and interpretation of 

 law. But they lead us so far beyond what formerly 

 seemed the bounds of the possible that they almost 

 challenge belief. 



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