CONCLUSION 165 



and chlorine there are several adaptations and relations 

 and as many contingencies. Both have the atomic nature, 

 form, and force. These are with inexpressible accuracy 

 and minuteness adapted to each other. They unite to 

 form a molecule possessed of new properties. Here are 

 contingencies strongly suggestive of mind. And the 

 argument is not merely a little but greatly strengthened, 

 when we find another atom of each, in which the same 

 properties and the same results of union are found, and 

 the same contingencies are involved. When we reach 

 ten of each, or twenty, or a hundred, it becomes of 

 inconceivable force. But the numbers and contingencies 

 go beyond all bounds, and the idea of chance as account- 

 ing for their state is chased and driven to a distance 

 beyond all bounds, and is absolutely excluded. But 

 chlorine, as we have seen, has all its atoms adjusted, not 

 to hydrogen alone, but to all the elements, and in every 

 case the same argument may be advanced, and with the 

 same overwhelming force. And taking into account, and 

 adding the multitude of affinities between elements and 

 elements, elements and compounds, compounds and com- 

 pounds, the relationships of the molecules to the ether, 

 and all the outcome from them in the many forms of 

 life, we slay the slain ten thousand thousand times, we 

 strengthen by centillions of bulwarks the building already 

 strong as the eternal rock. 



On the supposition that the order existing among the 

 elements of matter is due to mind, how great that mind 

 must be. The perfection of the adjustments, the com- 

 plexities and extent and amount of arrangements, are 

 such as to demand in the intelligence producing them 

 power immeasurably beyond all bounds that imagination 

 can conceive. He who could devise in thought, and 

 realise in fact, the vast and intricate system of the 



