380 VEA OMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



instead of replacing others, and thus renewing a pre-existing 

 form, to be gathered tirst hand from nature and put to- 

 gether in the same relative positions as those which they 

 occupy in the body. Supposing them to have the self- 

 same forces and distribution of forces, the selfsame motions 

 and distribution of motions would this organized con- 

 course of molecules stand before us as a sentient thinking 

 being? There seems no valid reason to believe that it 

 would not. Or, supposing a planet carved from the sun, 

 set spinning round an axis, and revolving round the sun at 

 a distance from him equal to that of our earth, would one 

 of the consequences of its refrigeration be the development 

 of organic forms? I lean to tiie affirmative. Structural 

 forces are certainly in the mass, whether or not those forces 

 reach to the extent of forming a plant or an animal. In 

 an amorphous drop of water lie latent all the marvels of 

 crystalline force; and who will set limits to the possible 

 play of molecules in a cooling planet? If these statements 

 startle, it is because matter has been defined and maligned 

 by philosophers and theologians, who were equally unaware 

 that it is, at bottom, essentially mystical and transcen- 

 dental. 



Questions such as these derive their present interest in 

 great part from their audacity, which is sure, in due time, 

 to disappear. And the sooner the public dread is abolished 

 with reference to such questions the better for the cause of 

 truth. As regards knowledge, physical science is polar. 

 In one sense it knows, or is destined to know, everything. 

 In another sense it knows nothing. Science understands 

 much of this intermediate phase of things that we call 

 nature, of which it is the product; but science knows 

 nothing of the origin or destiny of nature. Who or what 

 made the sun, and gave his rays their alleged power? Who 

 or what made and bestowed upon the ultimate particles of 

 matter their wondrous power of varied interaction? Science 

 does not know: the mystery, though pushed back remains 

 unaltered. To many of us who feel that there are more 

 things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in the 

 present philosophy of science, but who have been also 

 taught, by baffled efforts, how vain is the attempt to grap- 

 ple with the Inscrutable, the ultimate frame of mind is 

 that of Goethe: 



