THE VESTIBULE TO SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 673 



matter when "God moved upon the face of the waters" — i. e. , the elements of 

 matter. 



Thus far we have been getting together the materials with which we are to 

 work. We have now before us Matter and the Forces which act in and on Mat- 

 ter producing changes. Let us, therefore, next endeavor to discover the order in 

 which these changes naturally occur. 



In our thought let us go back to "the beginning" of which the Bible speaks. 

 We believe there was a beginning, though we may be wrong. Huxley says : 

 "Any human belief, however broad its basis, is only a probable belief- our 

 broadest generalizations are simply statements of the highest probability." 



Now if the simplest form of matter at the present time is the atom, then ' ' in 

 the beginning," before molecules and masses were formed, all matter must have 

 been in the atomic condition. These atoms were distributed through all space, 

 and were at rest, unaffected by any force save, perhaps, that universal force whose 

 laws the immortal Sir Isaac Newton formulated — the Attraction of Gravitation, 

 which we have termed the Cosmical Force. 



With the idea of Atoms, at rest and universally distributed, clearly set before 

 us, then the next question is, How did these atoms get together to form mole- 

 cules ? Well, we may make several hypotheses, which may or may not afford ex- 

 planation. 



First, let us say, the Creator endowed these atoms with peculiar affinities, 

 such that there was immediate attraction between them, and they began rushing 

 together. 



Secondly, let us say, the Creator " moved upon the face of the waters," and 

 the atoms rushed together, impelled by peculiarities in " mode of motion." 



Thirdly, let us say, the Creator endowed these atoms with peculiar affinities, 

 and then set them in motion, when they at once began to rush together, impelled 

 by these inherent affinities and peculiarities in "modes of motion." 



Any one of these may afford the true explanation, but we do not really 

 know. So, since we must make assumptions anyhow, let us not try to offer ex- 

 planation, but proceed to say that, " in the beginning," the primal form of matter 

 was the Atom, the first active force was atomic attraction, or chemical affinity, 

 and the first result of the interaction of these was the formation of Molecules, in 

 which were seen none of the original properties of the atoms, but entirely new 

 properties. 



In these steps we have run one complete round in the transitions of Matter, 

 and hence have set the bounds for what we shall call Kingdom I. 



Now, if we take Kingdom I, its atoms, chemism and molecules, and intro- 

 duce molecular attraction, the result will be masses of matter varying in size from 

 two or more molecules to those huge and wonderful aggregations we term stars 

 and worlds. Molecular attraction exhibits itself in more than one way. If it acts 

 between molecules of the same kind, we call it Cohesion; if between molecules of 

 different kinds, we call it Adhesion. It is a noticeable fact that under some cir- 

 cumstances this molecular attraction causes molecules in their aggregation to as- 



