The substances that will
combine will do so in these proportions, or in proportions of any _even
multiple_ of the number, and in no other. Thus fourteen parts of
nitrogen will combine with sixteen of oxygen; and we have several
substances in nature, called nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, nitric
di-oxide, &c., which illustrate this, in which fourteen parts of
nitrogen combine with sixteen oxygen or fourteen nitrogen with a
multiple of sixteen oxygen, or a multiple of fourteen nitrogen combine
with sixteen oxygen, and so on.
See now where we have got to. When we had spoken of a tiny fragment of
primal matter--a drop of water, for instance--it seemed as if there was
no more to be said; but no, we found ourselves able to give a whole
history of the molecules of which the substance consists; and when we
had considered the molecule, we found a further beautiful and intricate
order of _atoms_ inside the molecule, as it were.
And there is no reason to suppose that science has yet revealed all that
is possible to be known about atoms and molecules; so that if further
wonders should be evoked, the argument will grow and grow in cumulative
force.
Let me sum up the conclusion to be drawn from these facts in a quotation
from a discourse of Sir John F.W. Herschel.
"When we see," says that eminent philosopher, "a great number of things
precisely alike, we do not believe this similarity to have originated
except from _a common principle independent of them_; and that we
recognize this likeness, chiefly by the _identity of their deportment
under similar circumstances_ strengthens rather than weakens the
conclusion.
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