Atomic Theory — Wilde. 359 



of celestial bodies ? The objections have been considered, 

 and the reply is that analogous numbers or forms in 

 different departments of nature are most interesting, and 

 he who has followed the growth of thought on the mode of 

 making worlds must be thankful to see that some numbers 

 in one correspond to the other. It may be the beginning 

 of vast thought in cosmogony, and of a mathematical era 

 for thinking on the wild vortices of creation that have been 

 described by theorists of all ages. Atoms seem to have 

 begun worlds, and it is for us to watch the smallest open- 

 ings that give a " blink " into the great region where matter 

 took its shape. Who knows if our chemical compounds 

 do not form by motions analogous to celestial .-* This is a 

 region where we can have no regard to mere opinion, and 

 where reason has been unable to see clearly. Such is our 

 conclusion after hearing all voices without prejudice, and 

 so an abstract of the memoir remains here. 



* On tJie Origin of Elementary Substances y and on Some 

 New Relations of their Atomic Weights! by Henry 

 Wilde, Esq. ('Proceedings,' April 30, 1878.) 



* The hypothesis, that the solar system, as at present 

 constituted, was formed by the successive condensations of 

 a gaseous substance rotating under the influence of a central 

 force, has so much evidence in its favour, that it may be 

 affirmed to equal the best of that obtained from the geo- 

 logical record of the changes which in past times have 

 taken place on the surface of the terrestrial globe. That 

 this gaseous or primordial substance consisted of a chaotic 

 mixture of the sixty-five elements known to chemists is 

 a notion too absurd to be entertained by any one posses- 

 sing the faculty of philosophic thinking, as the regular gra- 



