ility, an ability [Page 257] to keep
themselves in exact relation of distance and power to each other,
without touching.

It is well known that water does not fill the space it occupies.
We can put eight or ten similar bulks of different substances into
a glass of water without greatly increasing its bulk, some actually
diminishing it. A philosopher has said that the atoms of oxygen
and hydrogen are probably not nearer to each other in water than
one hundred and fifty men would be if scattered over the surface
of England, one man to four hundred square miles.

The atoms of the luminiferous ether are infinitely more diffused,
and yet its interactive atoms can give four hundred millions of
light-waves a second. And now, more preposterous than all, each
atom has an attractive power for every other atom of the universe.
The little mote, visible only in a sunbeam streaming through a
dark room, and the atom, infinitely smaller, has a grasp upon the
whole world, the far-off sun, and the stars that people infinite
space. The Sage of Concord advises you to hitch your wagon to a
star. But this is hitching all stars to an infinitesimal part of
a wagon. Such an atom, so dowered, so infinite, so conscious, is
an impossible conception.

But if matter could be so dowered as to produce such results by
mechanism, could it be dowered to produce the results of intelligence?
Could it be dowered with power of choice without becoming mind?
If oxygen and hydrogen could be made able to combine into water,
could the same unformed matter produce in one case a plant, in
another a bird, in a third a man; and in each of these put bone,
brain, blood, and nerve in [Page 258] proper relations? Matter must
be mind, or subject to a present working mind, to do this. There
must be a present intelligence directing the process, laying the
dead bricks, marble, and wood in an intelligent order for a living
temple. If we do put God behind a single veil in dead matter, in all
living things he must be apparent and at work. If, then, such a
thing as an infinite atom is impossible, shall we not best
understand matter by saying it is a visible representation of God's
personal will and power, of his personal force, and perhaps
knowledge, set aside a little from himself, still possessed somewhat
of his personal attributes, still responsive to his will. What we
call matter may be best understood as God's force, will, knowledge,
rendered apparent, static, and unwe