MATTER AND FO&C&. 33? 



breaking becomes impossible through the very smallness of 

 the fragments; the smallest fragment is found endowed 

 with two poles, and is, therefore, a perfect magnet. But 

 you cannot stop here: you imagine where yon cannot ex- 

 periment; and reach the conclusion entertained by all 

 scientific men, that the magnet which you see and feel is 

 an assemblage of molecular -magnets which you cannot see 

 and feel, but which, as before stated, must be intellectually 

 discerned. 



Magnetism then is a polar force; and experience hints 

 that a force of this kind may exert a certain structural 

 power. It is known, for example, that iron filings strewn 

 round a magnet arrange themselves in definite lines, 

 called, by some, " magnetic curves," and, by others " lines 

 of magnetic force." Over two magnets now before me is 

 spread a sheet of paper. Scattering iron filings over the 

 paper, polar force conies into play, and every particle of 

 the iron responds to that force. We have a kind of archi- 

 tectural effort if I may use the term exerted on the part 

 of the iron filings. Here then is a fact of experience 

 which, as you will see immediately, furnishes further 

 material for the mind to operate upon, rendering it possi- 

 ble to attain intellectual clearness and repose, while 

 speculating upon apparently remote phenomena. 



The magnetic force has here acted upon particles visible 

 to the eye. But, as already stated, there are numerous 

 processes in nature which entirely elude the eye of the 

 body, and must be figured by the eye of the mind. The 

 processes of chemistry are examples of these. Long think- 

 ing and experimenting has led philosophers to conclude 

 that matter is composed of atoms from which, whether 

 separate or in combination, the whole material world is 

 built up. The air we breathe, for example, is mainly a 

 mechanical mixture of the atoms of oxygen and nitrogen. 

 The water we drink is also composed of oxygen and hydro- 

 gen. But it differs from the air in this particular, that in 

 water the oxygen and hydrogen are not mechanically 

 mixed, but chemically combined. The atoms of oxygen 

 and those of hydrogen exert enormous attractions on each 

 other, so that when brought into sufficient proximity they 

 rush together with an almost incredible force to form a 

 chemical compound. But powerful as is the force with 

 which these atoms lock themselves together, we have the 



