ATOMS AND MOLECULES 53 



have tremendous destructive force — a force, it 

 must be remembered, which is always there, though 

 not in disruptive form. 



(But the most wonderful thing about atoms and 

 molecules is not their power of destroying, but 

 their power of creating. They themselves choose 

 their partners, and their partnerships have made 

 the world as we know it. 



With gross matter man can work miracles. 

 He can mix colours on a palette and spread them 

 on canvas and make a Sistine Madonna. He can 

 put blocks of marble together and make a Milan 

 Cathedral. Of the macroscopic he is undisputed lord. 



But the microscopic elements of matter are only 

 partially in the control of man : they create with- 

 out his fiat^ and their simplest improvisations far 

 surpass his most elaborate compositions. Where 

 is the loom that can weave a lily-leaf } " Consider 

 the lilies of the field how they grow, they toil not, 

 neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that 

 even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 

 one of these." 



Even the most materialistic and unemotional 

 scientist talks about atomic affinities. And no 

 wonder ! CThe atoms and molecules, by their 

 aggregation and arrangement, by their weddings 

 and partnerships, make everything. We put a 

 packet of molecules, known as a seed, into the 



