66 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



" Passing onward to the gaseous state, still more 

 of the evident characters of bodies are annihilated. 

 The immense differences in their weight almost 

 disappear ; the remains of difference in colour 

 that were left are lost. Transparency becomes 

 universal, and they are all elastic. They now form 

 but one set of substances, and the varieties of 

 density, hardness, opacity, colour, elasticity, and 

 form, which render the number of solids and fluids 

 almost indefinite, are now supplied by a few slight 

 variations in weight and some unimportant shades 

 of colour. 



" To those, therefore, who admit the radiant 

 form of matter, no difficulty exists in the simplicity 

 of the properties it possesses, but rather an argu- 

 ment in their favour. Those persons show you 

 a regular resignation of properties in the matter 

 we can appreciate as the matter ascends in the scale 

 of form, and they would be surprised if that effect 

 were to cease at the gaseous state. They point 

 out the greater exertions which Nature makes at 

 each step of the change, and think that, consistently, 

 it ought to be greatest in the passage from the 

 gaseous to the radiant form. 



" If we conceive a change as far beyond vapori- 

 sation as that is above fluidity, and then take into 

 account also the proportional increased extent of 

 alteration as the changes rise, we shall perhaps, if 



