CORRELATION OF PHENOMENA 75 



so-called dead matter would thus pass away as a false 

 distinction, and all Nature appear as a manifestation 

 of Life ; this being the play of units of we know not 

 what, save that it is what we call electricity. Atoms 

 and molecules would thus be merely elementary living 

 cells, possessing some of the properties, but not all, 

 of the more highly organised cell, the unit with 

 which the biologist has to deal. These, indeed, are 

 not idle thoughts, heterodox, or orthodox ; they are 

 to us the logical outcome of all that we have had 

 to say." 



It is then towards molecular and atomic groupings 

 and the grouping of electrons that thought ere long 

 will doubtless move ; and although the facts already 

 obtained are few, yet new fields of investigation have 

 been opened up, as promising to the man of science 

 as the discovery of a new continent, nay, of a new 

 world, is to the explorer ; to what results they may 

 lead us, he would be rash, indeed, who should venture 

 to predict. They will, no doubt, in time, bring with 

 them results of practical value, and they will most 

 assuredly expand in no small degree our ideas of this 

 world around us ; and it now seems as though such 

 investigations were at least to give us a clue as to 

 the ultimate constitution, perhaps also as to the 

 ultimate destiny, not only of Life as we know it, but 

 of a simpler Life, that of Matter, too. Thus, 

 indeed, are we led, not by imagination alone, 

 but by the clearest analysis, to this generalisa- 

 tion, which to me, and, I trust, to the reader, 

 too, shall ere long have reached the stage of an 



