i 8 jg>] Matter Active. 227 
of cold which, as we before agreed, brought death to the 
matter which we see. Why, then, do people preach to us 
about the sun being the life of the earth and the source of 
all life ? To those who say so I turn, with apparent contra- 
diction, and say — No, the life is quite as much in the mole- 
cules. The sun gives probably several motions, but it cannot 
transfer its vitality to stones ; the composite organism re- 
ceives it, and disposes of it ; the poor organism of the flint 
only becomes warm ; the complex organism of the man 
glows with all his soul, the less complex molecules are 
moved in a still varied way. If they are of one original 
material, it may be asked, why does not heat set them in 
motion in exactly the same way ? But we find them showing 
nearly seventy characters, i.e., we have seventy bodies with 
fundamental differences to external appearance and tests. 
This is certainly not according to the development theory as 
we find it taken for granted in early writers, who uphold the 
existence of a prirna materia or an undefinable Yle. Without 
heat it was agreed that there would be no aCtion ; with heat 
the elements develope many and peculiar characteristics. 
The first is simply that the motion which we call heat is 
transferred to them, an aCtion of the same kind in all bodies 
whether solid or gaseous elements ; by it iron and oxygen 
both have their particles more violently agitated. The next 
motion is different; it arises from ' a characteristic of the 
molecule — the oxygen and the iron unite. This shows a 
compound character in these substances ; one for motion 
simple (let us suppose) in heat, another for combining. How 
many more we do not know, but certainly the second has 
very many modes of showing itself. If heat warms up the 
molecule its hidden qualities come out (just as we find when 
a starved man is set by the fire to warm), and all the various 
properties of the elements come forth more thoroughly 
than character from seventy people. In other words, the 
molecules have character ; and is it not a general faCt in 
Nature that character of any kind has some organisation to 
produce it ? If we wish to give a compound mechanical 
nature to a bar of iron we make out of it several parts, and 
produce a more or less composite machine, and according 
to the work it does is the amount of organisation given to 
it. In animals there are found organs, material embodiments 
of character, and so in plants, although when we go down 
very low in size, or high in subtlety, we cannot see them. 
If a molecule can do several things, is it not probable that 
it is because of these several parts ? Heat cannot make a 
simple piece of iron do the work of an engine ; why, then, 
Q2 
