327 



one in the first creation. Whilst the particles continue entire 

 they may compose bodies of one and the same nature and tex- 

 ture in all ages; but should they wear away or break to pieces, 

 the nature of things depending on them would be changed/^ 



7. Thus Newton expresses the same conception of matter v,diich 

 I have before alluded to as lying at the foundation of all modern 

 chemistry ; also calling to mind that it constituted the basis of 

 the oldest philosophy of which we have any record, as handed 

 down from Chaldean sages, and through Egyptian priests to 

 those Greek philosophers whose views are clothed in elegant 

 verse by Lucretius : — 



" Nam si primordia rerum 

 Commutari aliqua possent ratioue reviota, 

 Incertum quoque jam constet quid possit oriii, 

 Quid nequeat.'' 



• 



8. My own acquaintance with the AtomicTheory commenced at 

 the time when it began to be not only confirmed and illustrated, 

 but carried into unexpected regions of thought ; as, for instance, 

 in relation to the simple and definite proportions in which the 

 combination of gases takes place, as shown by Gay-Lussac, who 

 discovered the facts, or by Berzelius, the great Swedish chemist, 

 who not only determined the atomic weights with precision, but 

 gave to chemistry its own language and the use of formulae 

 adapted to the idea of dualistic compounds. At this time Sir 

 Humphrey Davy had illuminated the science by his brilliant 

 discoveries, and the theory began more and more to illustrate 

 the axiom of the book of Wisdom, that the Almighty acted in 

 creation, — 



'Udi/Ta ]xkTp(iJ teal apt^/ap kui aQaQyi.(^ dura'^UQ. 



9. It was therefore with some pardonable enthusiasm that I 

 followed this course of instruction, and certainly with the 

 thought that the explanation of the phenomena of the visible 

 world was much more simple than I now regard it as being. 

 The further progress of the science has made us acquainted 

 with many things at that time little suspected, and the applica- 

 tion of the theory to the study of organic chemistry has shown 

 us an almost infinitely diversified combination of organic matter, 

 having for its basis but a very few elementary bodies. It has 

 become necessary to assume the existence of numerous radicals 

 or compound elements^ such as cyanogen, which, though formed 

 of carbon and nitrogen, acts like a simple substance ; but when 

 one such substance had been isolated, it was quite a fair and 

 legitimate supposition that others would in due season be mani- 

 fested, and now that this hope has been realized we can no 

 longer admit the reproach made by a French chemist against 



