350 DESIGN IN NATURE 



uranium, wliicli is derived from pitchblende, prints a picture of itself in the dark on a photographic plate. Uranium 

 is always giving out or exerting this photographic influence. The marvellous new metal, radium, also derived from 

 pitchblende by Mme. Curie, exhibits these radio-active properties to an extraordinary extent. The radio-active 

 elements, as Sir William Ramsay has shown, make the air around them conductors of electricity. He took a 

 tassel of silk threads and rubbed it with fur and so electrified the tassel ; then, bringing a minute portion of radium 

 near, the electricity was discharged. 



The most wonderful property of radium is its continually giving off a gas or emanation that shines by its own 

 light. From the gas proceed three kinds of rays, namely, A-rays, which can be seen striking against a chemical 

 screen ; B, or cathode-rays, which will pass through lead ; and G-rays, which are those of Rontgen. When the 

 spectrum of the gas is thrown on a screen, and the gas fades away. Helium is left ; a circumstance of the utmost 

 consequence as indicating, according to Ramsay and Soddy, that radium is an element breaking up, and in its dis- 

 solution giving out energy. If the heat of radium could be retained it would become incandescent. Radium, 

 uranium, and thorium are all heavy elements and self-destructive on account of their mass. In the opinion of 

 certain astronomers, suns, beyond a certain size, also matter, force, heat, light, &c., though very intimately related, 

 are not inextricably or hopelessly blended, and can be separated by the employment of sufficiently delicate instru- 

 ments and tests and exercising due care. 



Sir William Crookes, by his experiments and writings, has given a great impetus to the consideration of the 

 finer varieties and ultimate composition of inorganic matter. He claims a fourth condition for it. Matter in the 

 aggregate is to be considered as solid, liquid, gaseous, and ethereal. In detail it is infinitely divisible. There is, 

 so to speak, matter within matter : each kind of matter having specific movements and exercising certain powers 

 such as gravitation, attraction, repulsion, cohesion, adhesion, &c. The movements of matter are at least of three 

 kinds, namely, wave movements, movements of rotation round an axis, and movements of bodies round each 

 other. It does not suffice nowadays merely to say that atoms form molecules and molecules cells, tissues, and 

 organs ; for it has been demonstrated that in the interstices between the atoms and molecules finer matter exists, 

 and that this finer matter (generally called ether) possesses powers of attraction and repulsion, cohesion, and 

 adhesion, &c., and displays rotatory and wave movements similar to those which obtain in the atoms and mole- 

 cules themselves. The tendency is to credit the finer masses of matter with analogous properties and powers to 

 those possessed by the larger bodies, even the celestial spheres. Ether has been variously defined. It is regarded 

 by some as imponderable, neither solid, Uquid, nor gaseous, not made up of particles (atoms), but continuous and 

 intimately connected with light, radiant heat, magnetism, and electricity. 



As it is not possible to unify or simphfy matter beyond a certain point, neither is it possible indefinitely to 

 imify or simphfy force. Physical, vital, and mental force cannot be regarded as identical and different phases 

 of one and the same thing. 



Large and small masses of inorganic matter possess and exert inherent force and act and re-act upon each 

 other according to fixed laws. The inherent force referred to is fitly designated physical force. It is not of a 

 directive or adaptive kind. Large and small living bodies, such as plants and animals, and parts thereof, possess 

 force which exercises a directive power. This has appropriately been designated vital force. Lastly, there are the 

 forces wielded by the Creator, which are directive to an extent which it is next to impossible even partly to reahse. 

 These forces are the product of intellect in its highest and most concentrated form. Only in the Creator can force 

 (physical, vital, and mental) be unified, and what is said of force may also be said of matter. The Supreme Being 

 works in and through matter, organic and inorganic, and through physical, vital, and mental force, and no change 

 can occur in matter, be it great or small, near or remote, which is not inaugurated and controlled by the Creator 

 as the First Cause. He is the Alpha and Omega of all things. Without the absolute control of matter, inorganic 

 and organic, and of the physical, vital, and mental forces which energize it, there could be no co-ordination, no 

 co-adaptation, no arrangement of means to ends. 



I am well aware that certain Physicists, Chemists, and Physiologists maintain that there is no such thing as 

 vital force, and they ignore the idea of design and a Creator or First Cause. They support the purely mechanical 

 theory of the origin and working of the Universe. They attempt a vast generahsation without being able to 

 explain or prove the particulars. They take everything for granted ; theirs is a case of fetitio princi'pu, pure and 

 simple. They boldly assert that matter and force are eternal ; that force inheres in and is inseparable from matter ; 

 that matter is self-forming and self-directing ; that matter assumes movement, and, under certain circumstances, life ; 

 that there is no Creator or First Cause ; no design ; no directive agency ; no adaptation of means to ends ; no 

 law and order in the ordinary sense. They regard the universe as a huge congeries of stray particles acting in 

 a haphazard or accidental manner. They resent and reject any interference from without, and declare that the 

 world of matter does not require and does not admit of any interference on the part of a Creator or First Cause, 



