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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The truths here enunciated cannot 

 be too carefully pondered. In its mod- 

 ern progress Science has been con- 

 stantly warned off from the field of 

 Philosophy, as having no concern what- 

 ever with its issues or interests. But 

 Science has no more choice or respon- 

 sibility in regard to the results of its 

 work than it has with regard to the 

 phenomena which it investigates. If 

 it is to be suffered to exist at all, it 

 must proceed with its labor of investi- 

 gating facts and establishing principles ; 

 to what conclusions these will lead de- 

 pends upon nobody's preference, but 

 upon the constitution of the universe 

 itself. If the scheme of being around 

 us is a harmonized and unified order, 

 where all the parts are in reciprocal 

 sympathy, then he who strikes an im- 

 pulse is not to be called to account for 

 the sweep and compass of the undula- 

 tions which follow. Science may be 

 occupied in her legitimate duty with 

 simple laboratory experiments, and es- 

 tablish results that w r ill thrill through 

 all spheres of thought, and reach to the 

 very core of philosophy. 



Such a step was taken in the last 

 century in establishing the indestructi- 

 bility of matter. The problem that had 

 baffled philosophy, for thousands of 

 years, was settled by the experimenters. 

 The truth which was inaccessible to 

 speculation was arrived at by the phys- 

 icists and chemists. It had been be- 

 lieved, for centuries, that in the changes 

 of form — the appearances and disap- 

 pearances of Nature — existence itself 

 was implicated, and matter, the sub- 

 stratum of being, was continually cre- 

 ated and destroyed. The poetic divina- 

 tion — 



" The eternal Pan, 

 Bideth never in one shape, 

 But forever doth escape 

 Into new forms " — 



only became a demonstrated truth 

 when the mechanics had perfected 

 the chemical balance and made it pos- 

 sible to pursue the course of material 



transformations. It was then found 

 that the old belief in the destructibility 

 of matter was without foundation, and 

 that the persistence of material elements 

 through all changes of form was de- 

 monstrated by every particle of evidence 

 that bore upon the case. Philosophy, 

 which aims at the deepest explanation 

 of the order of things around us, if it 

 has any aim worth pursuing, thus de- 

 rived a new datum from the work- 

 shop; but how foolish to assume that, 

 in elaborating it, the chemists were in- 

 spired with any purpose to trench upon 

 the domain of Philosophy ! 



But this research, which ended in 

 the establishment of the law that mat- 

 ter is indestructible, was but an appren- 

 ticeship for deeper and more delicate 

 investigations of the same kind. The 

 use of the balance led to the discovery 

 of quantitative chemistry, the highest 

 phase of the science, and strengthened 

 the mental habit of regarding phenom- 

 ena in their quantitative relations. 

 Matter is not only associated with 

 forces, but it is manifested and known 

 through its essential and inseparable 

 activities. It is not only determined 

 by its forces, but it is measured by 

 them. The very instrument by which 

 matter was proved to be indestructible, 

 was but a device for showing the con- 

 stant relation of material bodies to the 

 force of gravity. Cohesion, affinity, 

 heat, light, and magnetism, are but dy- 

 namic affections of matter, which are 

 involved in all its changes, and it was 

 simply inevitable that when one ele- 

 ment of things was proved to be es- 

 sentially indestructible, through every 

 mutation of form, the same inquiry 

 should be pressed in regard to this 

 character of the other forces. Nat- 

 urally, and quite necessarily, the dis- 

 ciplined scientific thinkers of differ- 

 ent countries, with no knowledge of 

 each other's purposes, and proceeding 

 from different points of view, were led 

 to engage with the experimental prob- 

 lem of the quantitative interactions of 



