shift; that under chemistry was power and purpose: power and purpose ride on matter to the last atom. It was steeped in thought, did everywhere express thought; that, as great conquerors have burned their ships when once they were landed on the wished-for shore, so the noble house of Nature we inhabit has temporary uses, and we can afford to leave it one day. The ends of all are moral, and therefore the beginnings are such. Thin or solid, everything is in flight. I believe this conviction makes the charm of chemistry,—that we have the same avoirdupois matter in an alembic, without a vestige of the old form; and in animal transformation not less, as in grub and fly, in egg and bird, in embryo and man; everything undressing and stealing away from its old into new form, and nothing fast but those invisible cords which we call laws, on which all is strung.1Open page Then we see that things wear different names and faces, but belong to one family; that the secret cords or laws show their wellknown virtue through every variety, be it animal, or plant, or planet, and the interest is gradually transferred from the forms to the lurking method.2Open page
This hint, however conveyed, upsets our politics, trade, customs, marriages, nay, the common
