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THE CHEMISTRY OF MAN. 65
will soon be surprised to find how nearly
the chemical ingredients of all animal substances.
alike are
All forms of matter exist in virtue of certain laws,
under which they maintain their conditions and iden
tities. As as long certain attractions and repulsions
exist, in a certain relation of intensity, there is no
change; but change conditions, and the atoms instantly
assume new relations and new forms. With the sim
ple addition of caloric, ice becomes water, and water
steam ; with the abstraction of caloric, steam is con
densed to water, and water solidifies. Under a similar
rise of temperature, the solid substance gunpowder, or
gun-cotton, assumes instantly a gaseous form, and the
added repulsion of its atoms acts with tremendous and
destructive force and rapidity.
So, if we bring the element of electricity, in the form
of galvanism, to act upon water, we disturb the attrac
tions of the atoms of oxygen and hydrogen
for each
other. The oxygen obeys a stronger attraction, and
goes to one pole of the battery, while hydrogen rises
from the other. And such, in some way, is the condi
tion of all compositions and decompositions;
and similar
laws, founded on a system of universal analogy, run
through
the whole universe of matter and of mind.
Every atom of matter, and every human soul, left in
freedom, follows its strongest attraction. It is God's
law.
Of the great number of substances reckoned elemen
tary, many enter into the complex combinations of the
organic world ; but there are only a few which seem
necessary.
The rest are occasional or accidental.
Thus, in the vegetable kingdom, we have carbon, oxygen,