GEORGE THOMAS WHITE PATRICK 131 



make anything what It Is. We can easily understand 

 this wonderful conception of the wise old Greek 

 philosopher. The Parthenon, the sublime example of 

 Greek architectural art which graces the Acropolis at 

 Athens, and which In Aristotle's time shone in all Its 

 splendor, finds Its significance. Its meaning, its reality, 

 not In the marble of which It Is composed, but In its 

 form. Its Idea, its beauty. It was the expression of 

 Greek ideals, the fruition of Greek art. Any one can 

 dig marble out of a quarry, but only a supreme artist 

 can make it Into a Parthenon. So It is not what the 

 world Is made out of that Is significant, but what it is 

 made into. 



It seems strange therefore in appraising the world 

 around us, in trying to form a judgment as to Its ulti- 

 mate materiality or ideality, that we should take the 

 atoms so seriously, or the protons and electrons, or 

 whatever the final units shall prove to be, torturing 

 the facts sometimes to prove that these final units must 

 in their inner being resemble minds or souls or centres 

 of consciousness. 



We do not need to take the atoms so seriously, be- 

 cause the things which are made out of them do not 

 have the same qualities as they themselves have. Salt 

 does not have the properties of the sodium and chlo- 

 rine which compose It — but new and strange ones. 

 Judging from its two elements, we should suppose it 

 to be a corrosive poison, but it turns out to be a useful 

 and agreeable condiment. Vital organisms do not 

 have the properties of the inorganic elements compos- 

 ing them, but new and almost miraculous properties, 

 such as growth and reproduction. Further on in the 

 history of evolution appear very complex and highly 

 integrated organisms, which again display new and 



