1878.] 
Genesis of Matter. 
495 
or in some of the stages. Probably there were more than 
one stage ; by going back we may suppose the one above 
spoken of, whereby it lost its cohesion in the greatest cold, 
its tendency to itself ; and by another, its tendency to any 
other matter or its gravity ; and thus we have its free parts 
in the wide Universe — and what are these parts of hydrogen 
like ? 
Now, do not wonder that hydrogen should have parts. 
Do you suppose that such a complex substance — yes, com- 
plex, it has many properties — was made at once ? Nature 
makes the complex out of the simple. Hydrogen must be 
supposed capable of being broken up. The parts are not to 
be explained by experiment ; we have no experience of the 
chemistry of the lower stage of matter. In the present 
known hydrogen we have atom striking against atom, and 
interrupted in its motion ; we have also atom combining 
with atom, and more interrupted ; and we have atom gravi- 
tating towards atom, seeking a fresh stage of interruption, 
and a complex social system that cannot be kept up by the 
simple savage atoms of the early stages of existence. 
These earlier atoms may have no community of feeling. 
We suppose the great gravitation of the Universe as nothing 
to them, and that they live unconscious by their afits of any 
existence outside of them. Of course some people will say 
that in any case they cannot pass through our matter: that 
is quite an assumption. Glass allows something to pass, 
and why not our more simple bodies ? We are not quite 
sure whether the same does not in some way take place 
with all matter which is transparent to several agencies. 
And now that you have your free and independent matter, 
what will you do with it ? I cannot catch it and curb it ; 
it will not yield to my entreaties, or be kept down by my 
chains. Hydrogen would blow against me ; this will not. 
Hydrogen would burn, and even sing in doing so ; but this 
will not. And yet I cannot consider it without qualities as 
to hydrogen itself. The world sought it thousands of years, 
but could not catch it. By itself it will do nothing but 
escape from us. After a long time it was found that by 
combining with oxygen it burnt, and greater firmness was 
given to both. By analogous means may one element 
receive new qualities, such as weight and resistance. But 
we do not suppose that the removal of gravitating power 
removes all resistance. That is not necessary, as cohesion 
is much more powerful than gravitation ; but we have 
removed cohesion also from our new elements : they 
are free. 
