nt substance, but merely unite and
yet remain distinct. If the combination be destroyed by chemical
action, electrical discharge, etc., the atoms fly apart, and again live
their own separate lives, until they come in contact with other atoms
with which they have affinities, and form a new union or partnership.
In many chemical changes the atoms divorce themselves, each forsaking
its mate or mates, and seeking some newer affinity in the shape of a
more congenial atom. The atoms manifest a fickleness and will always
desert a lesser attraction for a greater one. This is no mere bit of
imagery, or scientific poetry. It is a scientific statement of the
action of atoms along the lines of vital manifestation.
The great German scientist, Haekel, has said: "I cannot imagine the
simplest chemical and physical processes without attributing the
movement of the material particles to unconscious sensation. The idea
of Chemical Affinity consists in the fact that the various chemical
elements perceive differences in the qualities of other elements, and
experience pleasure or revulsion at contact with them, and execute
their respective movements on this ground." He also says: "We may
ascribe the feeling of pleasure or pain (satisfaction or
dissatisfaction) to all atoms, and thereby ascribe the elective
affinities of chemistry to the attraction between living atoms and
repulsion between hating atoms." He also says that "the sensations in
animal and plant life are connected by a long series of evolutionary
stages with the simpler forms of sensation that we find in the
inorganic elements, and that reveal themselves in chemical affinity."
Naegli says: "If the molecules possess something that is related,
however distantly, to sensation, it must be comfortable for them to be
able to follow their attractions and repulsions, and uncomfortable for
them when they are forced to do otherwise."
We might fill page after page with quotations from eminent thinkers
going to prove the correctness of the old Yogi teachings that Life is
Omnipresent. Modern Science is rapidly advancing to this position,
leaving behind her the old idea of "dead matter." Even the new theories
of the electron--the little particles of electrical energy which are
now believed to constitute the base of the atom--does not change this
idea, for the electrons manifest attraction, and response thereto, and
form themselves into groups composing the atom. And even if we pass
beyond
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