e the Non-ego shifts, the Ego remains the same.
Constancy of form in the grouping of the molecules, and not constancy
of the molecules themselves, is the correlative of this constancy of
perception. Life is a wave which in no two consecutive moments of its
existence is composed of the same particles.

Supposing, then, the molecules of the human body, instead of replacing
others, and thus renewing a pre-existing form, to be gathered first
hand from nature and put together in the same relative positions as
those which they occupy in the body. Supposing them to have the
selfsame forces and distribution of forces, the selfsame motions and
distribution of motions--would this organised concourse of molecules
stand before us as a sentient thinking being? There seems no valid
reason to believe that it would not. Or, supposing a planet carved
from the sun, set spinning round an axis, and revolving round the sun
at a distance from him equal to that of our earth, would one of the
consequences of its refrigeration be the development of organic forms?
I lean to the affirmative. _Structural_ forces are certainly in the
mass, whether or not those forces reach to the extent of forming a
plant or an animal. In an amorphous drop of water lie latent all the
marvels of crystalline force; and who will set limits to the possible
play of molecules in a cooling planet? If these statements startle,
it is because matter has been defined and maligned by philosophers and
theologians, who were equally unaware that it is, at bottom,
essentially mystical and transcendental.

Questions such as these derive their present interest in great part
from their audacity, which is sure, in due time, to disappear. And
the sooner the public dread is abolished with reference to such
questions the better for the cause of truth. As regards knowledge,
physical science is polar. In one sense it knows, or is destined to
know, everything. In another sense it knows nothing. Science
understands much of this intermediate phase of things that we call
nature, of which it is the product; but science knows nothing of the
origin or destiny of nature. Who or what made the sun, and gave his
rays their alleged power? Who or what made and bestowed upon the
ultimate particles of matter their wondrous power of varied
interaction? Science does not know: the mystery, though pushed back,
remains unaltered. To many of us who feel that there are more things
in heaven an