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aspect before the British Association, has been always a matter 
of wonder with myself and many others ; and that wonder is 
not lessened by the explanations which he has offered in the 
preface to the seventh thousand. 
He evidently wishes to keep, by its means, prominently 
before our eyes the potentiality of the fact ,that matter is in 
some way or other the origin of life without the intervention 
of other life. And yet, as far as the atomic theory is concerned, 
nothing could be farther removed from probability. Could an 
atom unmoved produce life ? and could mere motion add to its 
capabilities ? Would the fact that great numbers were moving 
and colliding with very great velocities alter the state of the 
case ? 
And yet, he says, when grasping the true idea of the atom 
and molecule, “ By an intellectual necessity I cross the 
boundary of the experimental evidence, and discern in that 
matter which we, in our ignorance of its latent powers, and 
notwithstanding our professed reverence for its Creator, have 
hitherto covered with opprobrium, the promise and potency of 
all terrestrial life.” 
I have spoken before of the abuse of imagination as applied 
to science, but this is perhaps one of the most singular 
instances of misuse which has occurred. If ever there was 
anything which has put an impassable barrier in the way 
of imagination as well as knowledge, it is the molecule 
or atom. “ Thus far and no farther ” is the address to 
the human mind, as plainly as to the ocean, that on the shore 
within a defined range its proud waves are stayed. 
It is what the mathematician would call a case of a discon- 
tinuous function. A successive set of values of the variable 
will give tabulated values of the function amenable to law up 
to a certain point, and then the formula fails to give any finite 
or intelligible result. And here it is so likewise — wo can 
resolve matter into its elements up to a certain point, and then 
we come to substances absolutely irresolvable and unchange- 
able, or, as an eminent physicist has well called them, the 
foundation-stones of the universe. Imagination has no more 
place than farther experiment has at present. We can do 
nothing but look up and adore the Author of Nature. 
I am unwilling to discuss farther the merits or the demerits 
of tho Belfast Address. Its brilliant style and genuine elo- 
quence and enthusiasm, the jealous love of its author, not only 
for nature and experimental research, but even for the inert 
matter on which the experiments are made, have induced some 
to look upon it with greater admiration than its philosophical 
