Richter. 



227 



able facts in connection with which he confessed to 

 perceive no law.' 



One cannot get a clearer notion of the indefinite or 

 lawless constitution of the chemist's mind generally as to 

 affinity than from a sentence in a volume by D. Friedrich 

 Stromeyer. He says, p. 66, 36 (' Grundriss Theore- 

 tischer Chemie zum Behuf seiner Vorlesungen entworfen 

 von D. Friedrich Stromeyer/ Gottingen 1808), ' The affinity 

 of a substance towards another is always in proportion to 

 its chemical mass, which it brings with it for combina- 

 tion.' 



Creation is full of wonders ; we can fancy Euclid writing 

 out his axioms ; let us not inquire how long they took to 

 grow and where they first took root, but let us fancy them 

 quite easy so that anyone can see them, and some persons 

 saying, well, anyone can understand that, .but, like the 

 schoolboy trying how small they can make a point, and 

 still giving it size. Mediaeval logicians gave wings to their 

 imagination, and argued on the number of spirits which can 

 dance on the top of this mathematical point, whilst the 

 geometrician draws a line from it and makes people wonder 

 how much space he has taken up. Algebra succeeds 

 geometry. Both seek results that few can understand, and 

 penetrate into regions as difficult of access to most human 

 beings as the back of the shining moon. There has been 

 no greater case of development in man's nature, even in 

 his prehistoric and historic times together, than this mathe- 

 matical one. The point and the line have become a world 

 of thought, only in part as yet comprehended, but cosmic 

 and other movements of creation have prepared our 

 thoughts of geometry and algebra by making out the 

 problems in deeds of infinite magnitude. 



Q 2 



