THE POETRY OF CHEMISTRY. 
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which bodies are composed; and as all the atoms of 
matter have a spherical or globular form, the attractions 
and repulsions of atomic particles exhibit a close analogy 
to the attractions and repulsions of the worlds. It is 
possible, indeed, that there is but one attraction and one 
chemical law, and the phenomenon of an atom may be 
repeated in the dewdrop, in the bubble on the stream, 
and in the floating world. There is more poetry in the 
alembic and the test tube than the worldly dream about. 
In one direction the earnest workers are probing the 
secrets of Nature, and unravelling one by one the mystic 
threads that run through all her fabrications; and in 
another, poet-minds are arranging and diffusing the facts 
which the former have made known, that all the world 
may become inheritors of the new possession, and dwell 
with increased joy on the contemplation of these new 
treasures of the Almighty's handiwork.* 
If we trace back the history of our world into those 
remote eras of which the early rocks are records, we 
shall discover that the same chemical laws were operating 
then which control the changes of matter now. At one 
period the earth was a huge mass of fiery fluid, which, 
radiating or throwing off heat into space, gradually 
cooled, and became surrounded with a solid crust, 
entombing within itself a mere chaos of intensely heated 
materials, which now assert their existence in the shock 
* u The Chemistry of the Seasons.” By J. Griffiths, Author of 
u The Chemistry of the Four Elements,” Chemical Lecturer to the 
Royal Family. London: John Churchill. 
“ Chemistry, as exemplifying the Wisdom and Beneficence of 
God ” By George Fownes. Ibid. 
