CHAPTER IV.
MOLECULAR FORCES.
Conditions of Matter—Variety of organized Forms—Inorganic Forms—All matter reducible to the most simple conditions—Transmutation, a natural operation—Chemical Elementary Principles—Divisibility of Matter—Atoms—Molecules—Particles—Molecular Force includes several Agencies—Instanced in the Action of Heat on Bodies—All Bodies porous—Solution—Mixture—Combination—Centres of Force—Different States of Matter (Allotropic Conditions)—Theories of Franklin, Æpinus, and Coulomb—Electrical and Magnetic Agencies—Ancient Notions—Cohesive Attraction, &c.
In contemplating the works of nature, we cannot but regard, with feelings of religious admiration, the infinite variety of forms under which matter is presented to our senses. On every hand the utmost diversity is exhibited; through all things we trace the most perfect order; and over all is diffused the charm of beauty. It is the uneducated or depraved alone who find deformities in the creations by which we are surrounded.
The three conditions of matter are—the solid, the fluid, and the aëriform; and these belong equally to the organic and the inorganic world.
In organic nature we have an almost infinite variety of animal form, presenting developments widely different from each other, yet in every case suited to the circumstances required by the position which the creature, occupies in the scale of being. Through the entire series, from the Polype to the higher order of animals, even to man, we find a uniformity in the progress towards perfection, and a continuity in the series, which betrays the great secret, that the mystery of life is the same in all,—a pervading spiritual essence associated with matter, and modifying it by the master-mechanism of an Infinite mind.
In the vegetable clothing of the surface of the earth, which fits it for the abode of man and animals—from the confervæ of a stagnant pool, or the lichen of the wind-beaten rocks, to the lordly oak or towering palm—a singularly beautiful chain of being presents itself to the contemplative mind, and we cannot but trace the gradual elevation in the scale of organization.
In the inorganic world, where the great phenomena of life are wanting, we have constantly exhibited the working of powers of a strangely complicated kind. The symmetrical arrangement of crystals—the diversified characters of mineral formations—the systematic aggregations of particles to form masses possessing properties of a peculiar and striking nature—all prove, that agencies, which science, with all its refinements, has not yet detected, are unceasingly at work. Heat, electricity, chemical power—whatever that may be—and the forces of cohesion, are known to be involved in the production of the forms we see; but contemplation soon leads to the conviction that these powers are subordinate to others which we know not of. We know only the things belonging to the surface of our planet, and these but superficially. The geologist traces rock-formations succeeding each other (from the primary strata holding no traces of organized forms, through the Paleozoic series, in which, step by step, the history of animal life is recorded,) to the more recent formations, teeming with relics, which, though allied to some animal types still existing, are generally such as have passed away. The naturalist searches the earth, the waters, and the air, for their living things; and the diversity of form, the variety of condition, and the perfection of organization which he discovers as belonging to this our epoch—differing from, indeed bearing but a slight relation to, those which mark the earth’s mutations—exhibit, in a most striking view, the endless variety of characters which matter can assume.
We are so accustomed to all these phenomena of matter, that it is with some difficulty we can bend ourselves to the study of the more simple conditions in which it exists.