if it should be replied, that the elementary particles are atoms not
positively, but by such a hardness communicated to them as is relatively
invincible, I should remind the assertor that _temeraria citatio
supernaturalium est pulvinar intellectus pigri_, and that he who requires
me to believe a miracle of his own dreaming, must first work a miracle to
convince me that he had dreamt by inspiration. Add, too, the gross
inconsistency of resorting to an immaterial influence in order to complete
a system of materialism, by the exclusion of all modes of existence which
the theorist cannot in imagination, at least, _finger_ and _peep_ at! Each
of the preceding gradations, as above defined, might be represented as
they exist, and are realised in Nature. But each would require a work for
itself, co-extensive with the science of metals, and that of fossils (both
as geologically applied); of crystallization; and of vegetable and animal
physiology, in all its distinct branches. The nature of the present essay
scarcely permits the space sufficient to illustrate our meaning. The proof
of its probability (for to that only can we arrive by so partial an
application of the hypothesis), is to be found in its powers of solving
the particular class of phenomena, that form the subjects of the present
inquisition, more satisfactorily and profitably than has been done, or
even attempted before.

Exclusively, therefore, for the purposes of _illustration_, I would take
as an instance of the first step, the metals, those, namely, that are
capable of permanent reduction. For, by the established laws of
nomenclature, the others (as sodium, potassium, calcium, silicium, &c.)
would be entitled to a class of their own, under the name of _bases_. It
is long since the chemists have despaired of decomposing this class of
bodies. They still remain, one and all, as elements or simple bodies,
though, on the principles of the corpuscularian philosophy, nothing can be
more improbable than that they really are such; and no reason has or can
be assigned on the grounds of that system, why, in no one instance, the
contrary has not been proved. But this is at once explained, if we assume
them as the simplest form of unity, namely, the unity of powers and
properties. For these, it is evident, may be endlessly modified, but can
never be decomposed. If I were asked by a philosopher who had previously
extended the attribute of Life to the _Byssus speciosa_, and even