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 which 
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 ratione revicta, 
Xncertum quoque jam constet quid possit oriri, 
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, — 
II avra ixerpip ical apiQpip icai c9a0p,(p ddra^ag. 
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 
