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physical science cannot inform us what must have been before the 

 beginning, nor yet can it teli us what will take place after the end.'' 



The most singular result of the Polariscope in the examination of a 

 compound produced under the influence of Life, is the rotation of the 

 ray of light, telling of the relation of the substance to the process of 

 organisation. This is seen in the optical examination of the animal or 

 vegetable sugars. It is seen in quinine and various alkaloids. It is 

 right to state, however, that a German chemist affirms that he has 

 produced from inorganic material a compound which possesses the power 

 of rotation of light. If this be so, it is only another instance that 

 the hard and fast lines in nature are, though rarely, exceptional. 



It may be hoped that, with the advance of the polariscopic qualita- 

 tive, if not quantitative analysis, other functional changes will be re- 

 cognised, and, by the reflected light of such discoveries, dealing with 

 chemical composition rather than structure, will reveal what the micro- 

 scope is powerless to discover, telling of a chemical composition de- 

 veloped and illuminated by a ray of polarised light — not so much in 

 form, not in any speciality of structure, but in the marvels of Life 

 under Law. 



The conservation of energy, directive though not creative, in the 

 living organised structure, and the chemical affinities in that which is 

 unorganised, show, it might be held, that a lower mode of life pervades 

 every existing being ; but we believe that in God's own time that higher 

 life which shows itself in progressive organisation, and is terminable, 

 will have a diff'erent existence, as least as regards the human being, 

 one freed from material associations, freed from phj^sical influences and 

 from moral shortcomings. 



It is believed by thoughtful men that matter is indestructible. 

 May we not find that as it has, in Time, subserved the physical, so in 

 Eternity it will, when spiritualised, subserve the moral law, and thus 

 an undying result will be evolved. 



It has been written that we " see as through a glass darkly ;" but 

 are there not grounds for the belief that such will not ever be the case ? 

 May we not believe that every discovery in development, in micro- 

 scopical structure, in chemical composition, and in electrical and optical 

 character, will be, when related to the property of Life, a fuller ray 

 of the burning lustre by which we approach the footstool of that 

 throne where we shall be permitted nearer and nearer to contemplate 

 the power and the ineffable light of Him from whom comes all Life ? ■ 



