COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



propagated from the sun to the earth. The dif- 

 ference between the faradaic current which cures 

 some deep-seated abnormity of nutrition, and 

 the lightning-flash which paralyzes and kills, is 

 at bottom a difference in amounts and rates of 

 atomic vibration. And according to the latest 

 speculations in chemical philosophy, it is be- 

 cause of the synchronousness or rhythmical har- 

 mony of the oscillatory movements described 

 by their atoms, that elementary substances are 

 enabled to combine in myriadfold ways, thus 

 making up the wondrous variety of forms, or- 

 ganic and inorganic, which the earth's surface 

 presents for our contemplation. 



Since the ultimate particles of which science 

 regards the universe as composed are thus per- 

 petually swaying to and fro, in accordance with 

 a law of motion that admits of no exception, we 

 may expect to find that the various aggregates 

 of these particles which constitute perceptible 

 bodies will exhibit a like rhythm, whether com- 

 paratively simple or endlessly compounded, in 

 their motions. The law which governs the ac- 

 tion of the parts must govern also the action of 

 the whole, no matter how intricately the whole 

 may be compounded. Whether it be in the case 

 of organic or inorganic bodies, of complex or of 

 simple aggregates, we must expect to come upon 

 systems of rhythmical movements, which will 

 be comparatively simple or endlessly complex, 

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