20 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



substances, and consequently the size of the masses ; let 

 him show a large number to choose from, and in every 

 case let there be a perfect level and stillness of the scales 

 let there be accuracy such that the least dust would be 

 seen to disturb the balance would not every witness 

 be filled with admiration, and ask in wonder how such 

 accuracy could be attained, and be sure that much 

 thought, and planning, and closest attention, and care 

 had gone before 1 Would not every witness regard with 

 scorn the suggestion that all was the result of chance ? 

 And when we consider the elements of the universe, 

 their infinitesimal smallness and the nicety of the weigh- 

 ing with which they are weighed, what ought to be the 

 boundlessness of our wonder, the fire of our admiration ; 

 how ought we to yield our whole being to the conviction 

 that a seeing and understanding nature hath done this, 

 that a hand of inconceivable power and fineness of touch, 

 associated with matchless intelligence, hath accomplished 

 it! 



The size. Four lines of experiment and of argument 

 lead to the same conclusion as to their size. They are 

 from T \j- millionth to T ^j- millionth of a centimetre in 

 diameter. Lord Kelvin imagines a globe of water about 

 six inches in diameter, magnified to the size of the earth, 

 and each molecule magnified in the same proportion. The 

 molecules would in this case be larger than in a heap of 

 small shot, but probably smaller than in one of footballs 

 of about six inches in diameter. 



The atoms of the same substances are practically of the 

 same size. There is the same amount of matter in them. 

 They occupy space. They are extended. They are small, 

 but of the same smallness. They are minute, but the 

 exactness of their correspondence in minuteness is still 

 more minute. Every atom of hydrogen fills the same 



