ATOMS AMD MOLECULES 21 



space. Every atom of oxygen occupies the same sized 

 point. The atoms of carbon, nitrogen, and all other 

 substances do the same. All the elements might be 

 represented by lines of indefinite length, and the same 

 lines formed of points of the same size. Here are 

 measurings the most amazing. Here is the finest deter- 

 mination of sizes on a scale of immeasurable greatness, in 

 multitudes without number. What, then, determined 

 those sizes 1 What measured them with an exactness so 

 minute 1 What produced a correspondence so amazing ? 

 How can we account for all matter being in its elements 

 so ordered in magnitude as to be like, say, seventy lines 

 of points so fine as to be invisible, and all those in the 

 same line of the same size? Where could the pen be 

 found to produce such representing points? where the 

 hand of perception so keen, the hand of touch so fine, as 

 to form them ? What could do such work but mind, a 

 wondrous mind associated with perceptive power the 

 keenest, and a hand and finger of transcendent fineness 

 of touch ? 



Their shape. Lord Kelvin has propounded a theory of 

 vortex ring atoms. They are in the shape of rings, and 

 have vortex motions. They form the parts of a perfect 

 fluid which fills space continuously and is absolutely 

 mobile. The fluid is a perfect fluid, and friction is 

 wholly absent. They must be of some perfect form in 

 order to be suitable for chemical combination. What, 

 then, shaped them so suitably? What can mould and 

 fashion? What can form into regular figures? What 

 but mind and mind alone ? 



II. Molecules. A molecule is not the same as an atom. 

 The latest chemistry carefully distinguishes them. Atoms 

 are the smallest particles that can be obtained by any 

 means chemical or physical. Molecules are the smallest 



