y structure of matter, and find that all substances are built
up of exactly the same bricks, the different forms known to us as
Elements being the _designs_ of the great Architect upon which each
structure has been built; and these completed designs again are used
and become the "ashlars" of the higher forms of plant and animal
structure. As Evolution in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms has
given us Species, so in the Material it has developed Elements. The
structures of animal and vegetable life are of comparatively recent
formation, and are still apparently progressing in the direction of
complexity, whereas the structures of matter appear to have long
passed the stage of highest complexity, and the elements are now
undergoing the retrograde process of being transformed, by
radio-activity, from the more complex into simpler elements of lower
atomic denominations--namely, having fewer bricks in each atom.

All these material designs are more or less radio-active--namely,
changing into other elements, but some, like radium, polonium, &c.,
are active to an extraordinary extent. Each molecule or atom may be
looked upon as an _aperture_, more or less open, through which we have
flowing the equivalent of what may be called a leak from the Infinite,
the changing of one element into another being represented by the
change of shape or activity of that aperture. Countless ages ago these
apertures were, by evolution, growing more and more complex in shape,
but when the limit of complexity was reached and the _Apex_ was
passed, an adaptation, somewhat analogous to death in the animal and
vegetable, must have come into play, with the result that these
apertures are now becoming more and more simple in their shape and
activity. The Infinite referred to above may be diagnosed by some as
being in the fourth dimension of space, or it may even be comprised
within the Ether of our known three dimensions, for the discovery of
radio-activity has enabled us to see that Ether is not only as dense
as iron, but millions of times denser than that metal, every cubic
foot, or probably cubic inch, being capable of supplying millions of
horse-power if it could only be tapped. A homely simile of this leak
from the Infinite may be seen in a glass of aerated water, where an
irregularity of surface, a crumb of bread, or a grain of sand becomes
the means by which carbonic-dioxide escapes from the interstices of
the water.

Radio-active substances th