168 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



But the fewer the absolutely simple elements may be 

 supposed to be, the more richly must they be endowed. 

 To the multitude of adaptations and adjustments which 

 we have already found must be added the number neces- 

 sary to produce the present seventy. And thus, if there 

 be only twenty, or ten, or five, or even two, all that we 

 brought forward showing the order in the formation of 

 compounds by innumerable combinations among the 

 seventy continues applicable to them, and applicable also 

 to the unions formed from the two. 



But it is said that there may be only one primal 

 element. In this case all the particles are alike. It 

 must have consisted of particles in some form. It must 

 have been an element naturally divisible and separable, 

 otherwise it could never by any means have been divided, 

 and parts separated from parts to form aggregations or 

 combinations. And we say that, on this supposition, they 

 were alike, were of the same figure, size, and weight, and 

 were endowed with the same forces and capacities. And 

 the argument we have advanced from likeness becomes 

 in their case of greater weight in proportion to the 

 greater number of atoms alike, in proportion to the 

 greater wonderfulness of their constitution. The atoms 

 of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen are wonder- 

 ful exceedingly, but they are as nothing compared with 

 the atoms out of which, on this supposition, the whole 

 physical, chemical, and living world has been evolved. 

 Nothing can come out of any entity which is not in it. 

 It cannot yield a multitude of variations unless they 

 belong to its fundamental nature, ready for development. 

 And so if there be but one simple kind of original 

 particle, and there have come from it all the variations 

 with which we are familiar, what must that particle be ? 

 All the variety in the universe must be hidden in it. 



