165 
one chance/ it is said, f is in expanding that interval, in getting 
as many pulsations as possible into the given time Not 
the fruit of experience, but experience itself is the end 
The theory, or idea, or system, which requires of us the sacrifice 
of any part of this experience, in consideration of some interest, 
into which we cannot enter, or some abstract morality we have 
not identified with ourselves, or that is only conventional, has 
no real claim upon us/ So sceptics teach : can you wonder 
that some who played an honourable part in Oxford life a ge- 
neration since, refuse to let their sons imbibe lessons so alien 
from the lore they learned ? Can you wonder that to young 
men who have imbibed this teaching the cross is an offence 
and the notion of a vocation to preach it an unintelligible 
craze/'’ 
Our only remaining consideration now is that of the atomic 
theory in its connection with theories of religion. If the sub- 
ject, in its purely physical aspect, were not so interesting, we 
might complain of being obliged, on account of recent circum- 
stances, to dig up as it were from its grave of oblivion that 
old exploded form of atomic atheism, and to go through again 
the arguments for its refutation. A wearying and unprofitable 
task surely, but one which the extreme unbelief of some of the 
philosophical systems of the present day renders necessary. It 
will be a little relief, and will probably conduce to clearness, if 
I take the parts of the subject in reverse order and explain 
first in as few words as possible what is the modern theory as 
founded on adequate observations and experiments. 
The atomic theory in chemistry, due to Dalton, has been 
established of course for a considerable time, by which it is 
known that the elementary chemical substances will combine 
in only definite proportions ; but the physical or kinetic theory 
of molecules and atoms is of much more recent date, and owes 
its present expansion chiefly to Sir William Thomson and Pro- 
fessor Clerk-Maxwell in England, and to Professors Clausius 
and Loschmidt on the continent, the experimental researches 
of Dr. Graham and Dr. Joule having also contributed much to 
its advancement. 
In the theory it is assumed that all matter is an aggrega- 
tion of molecules compounded of the atoms of the fundamen- 
tal chemical substances ; that these atoms are small almost 
beyond our power of conception, and are in a constant state 
of rapid vibration, with velocities differing in different sub- 
stances, but always absolutely the same for the same sub- 
stances. It is assumed also that the pressure of gases and 
