404 Dr. E. J. Mills on Statical and 



In the antagonism between continuity in mathematics and 

 alleged absolute limits in chemistry, we see the reason why so 

 few chemists are mathematicians, and so few mathematicians 

 chemists. 



Geology has, in recent years, shaken itself free from the fet- 

 ters of the cataclysmal school, and finds in existing forces, con- 

 tinuously exerted, an adequate explanation of her special phe- 

 nomena. 



Chemistry still looks with half-averted face upon all dynamical 

 doctrines. But her great centres of historic conflict are intelli- 

 gible only by their aid. Acid, Alkali, Base, and Salt are not 

 capable of definition as particular things*; the principle of con- 

 tinuity alone renders them clear. Chemical Substance is homo- 

 geneous, not discontinuous substance ; Chemical Functions are 

 modes of motion j\ The Atomic Theory, triumphant still, is 

 more suspected than before ; but it is indeed a better servant to 

 pure dynamics ; for it places before the mind, daily and most 

 distinctly, the fatal consequences of the assumption that quan- 

 tity consists of parts J. Grave and mature chemists now inves- 

 tigate the position of a particular atom in an aromatic compound, 

 and find it at the side, in the middle, or near some other portion 

 of an open or closed chain. In the mean time we hear nothing 

 of the chemical process. Such are our dreams ; we think them 

 so regular, orderly, and reasonable. And so they are, until the 

 morning ; then we shall be the first to laugh at ourselves. For 

 my own part, the perusal of modern chemical literature fills me 

 with an abiding sense of sorrow and shame. 



In the practical side of philosophy the idea of motion, in va- 

 rious derived forms, is also found ascendant. It is for the most 

 part to philosophers that the intellectual bias of modern nations 

 is due ; and the characteristics of contemporary society, having 

 been so derived, are in the main dynamical. The sentiments, 

 the affections, the passions of mankind have been flooded with 

 liberty and power. It has been found advisable, and even ne- 

 cessary, to remove many of the older educational restraints, and 

 to qualify at least the social distinctions we preserve. The 

 science of ethics has expired, with all necessity for formal sanc- 

 tions. The notions of right and wrong can now be derived his- 

 torically, and are no longer mysterious. While Idealism has, 

 on the one hand, restored to its supreme and lawful rank the 

 individual Self, it should be the business of the schools to make 

 men know that; in the mean time, the wide demand for liberty 

 of the will is not only audible but imperative. But it is evident 

 that, as soon as the ethical sanction is defined as liberty or free- 



* Phil. Mag. S. 4. vol. xxxvii. p. 461. 

 t Ibid. S. 4. vol. xl. p. 259. 

 X Ibid. S. 4. vol. xlii. p. 112. 



