UNIVERSITY I 



CHEMICAL COMBINATION 33 



reasonable mind to be their purpose ! How exactly, and 

 with what accuracy, they spring into their place, into the 

 many places they fill ! How gloriously perfect are their 

 unions ! How marvellous is the complete obliteration of 

 their old properties and the distinct presentation of the 

 new ! The old disappear without leaving a vestige ; the 

 new appear, pure, and untrammelled by anything that 

 belonged to the old. A great painter being asked with 

 what he mixed his colours, answered, " With brains, sir." 

 It was with hand guided by perceiving intelligence ; it 

 was a genius for colours that enabled him to produce 

 effects that were the admiration of beholders. With 

 what have the elements of matter been mixed after a 

 chemical manner after a manner with which no mixing 

 of colours can vie 1 With mind ; with mind, that glows 

 in their action above the brightness of the sun; with 

 mind, that formed, that adapted, that charged them with 

 measured chemical force. 



It is a universal characteristic of matter. Every atom 

 is distinguished by it. There is not a substance known 

 that is not constituted after a chemical manner, that has 

 not a relationship to some other, that does not enter into 

 combination with some other to form a new compound. 

 Even in the case of those that are rarest, the force of 

 affinity is so strong that there is the greatest difficulty in 

 separating them for examination. This amazing property 

 of matter, this finest of adjustments, that would have 

 filled us with admiration if it had existed on a small 

 scale in a little corner of nature, is in every corner, and 

 fills the universe. Every atom declares that it exists not 

 for itself alone, but for its neighbour, that the essentials 

 of its condition stand carefully adjusted for the most 

 beautiful and wonderful and perfect of unions. Every 

 atom in the vast field of matter is a gem carefully cut, is 

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