196 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



forces being unknown, philosophers have as yet 

 explored nature in vain." 



So Bruno and Newton ; and what they have 

 held, why fear we to believe ? We shall not be 

 burnt nowadays if we use our reason ; and we need 

 not take alarm at the term " materialist " in the 

 mawkish mouths of the unimaginative. 



We may be " dust of a weary satellite of a dying 

 sun," but when we know the seething secret of 

 the dust — when we know the infinite force it 

 conceals — when we know that each atom is a 

 miniature solar system, with a central sun and 

 revolving planets — then surely, without profanity, 

 we may recognise that matter is mother of man, 

 and mother, even, of the soul of man. 



Matter is the miracle of miracles, the most 

 ^mystical of all things mystical. ^ 



Now, is this not thaumaturgy ? We put the solar 

 systems called hydrogen beside the solar systems 

 known as oxygen, and we send a spark through 

 them, and the planets of the two systems combine 

 their two mazy orbits ; and behold, where these 

 were two gases is now the wonderful fluid we call 

 water. Oxygen, which is the father of flame, has 

 become the flame-extinguisher, or, as Samuel Laing 

 picturesquely puts it, " In his nature war-paint 

 oxygen is a furious savage ; with a hydrogen atom 

 in each hand he is a polished gentleman," How- 



