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OCCULTISM IN CHEMISTRY,
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the manifested Universe, such as a partial Pralaya after every Day of
Brahma; and a Universal Pralaya—the Maha- Pralaya—only after the
lapse of every Age of Brahma. But the scientific causes for such
dissolution, as brought forward by exact Science, have nothing to do
with the true causes. However that may be, Occultism is once more
justified by Science, for Mr. Crookes said:
We have shown, from arguments drawn from the chemical laboratory, that in
matter which has responded to every test of an element, there are minute shades of
difference which may admit of selection. We have seen that the time-honoured
distinction between elements and compounds no longer keeps pace with the developments
of chemical science, but must be modified to
include a vast array of
intermediate bodies— "meta-elements." We have shown how the objections of
Clerk-IMaxwell, weighty as they are, may be met; and finally, we have adduced
reasons for believing that primitive matter was formed by the act of a generative
force, throwing off at intervals of time atoms endowed with varying quantities of
primitive forms of energy.
If we may hazard any conjectures as to the source of
energy embodied in a chemical atom, we may, I think, premise that the heat radiations
propagated outwards through the ether from the ponderable matter of the
universe, by some process of nature not yet known to us, are transformed at the
confines of the universe into the primary—the essential—motions of chemical
atoms, which, the instant they are formed, gravitate inwards,
and thus restore to
the universe the energy which otherwise would be lost to it through radiant heat.
If this conjecture be well founded, Sir William Thomson's startling prediction of
the final decrepitude of the universe through the dissipation of its energy falls to
the ground. In this fashion, gentlemen, it seems to me that the question of the
elements may be provisionally treated. Our slender knowledge of these first mysteries
is extending steadily, surely, though slowly.
By a strange and curious coincidence even our Septenary doctrine
seems to force the hand of Science. If we understand rightly, Chemistry
speaks of fourteen groupings of primitive atoms—lithium, beryllium,
boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, sodium, magnesium, aluminium,
silicon, phosphorus, sulphur and chlorine; and Mr. Crookes,
speaking of the "dominant atomicities," enumerates seven groups of
these, for he says
As the mighty focus of creative energy goes round, we see it in successive cyclec
sowing in one tract of space seeds of lithium, potassium, rubidium, and caesium ; in
another tract, chlorine, bromine, and iodine; in a third, sodium, copper, silver, and
gold; in a fourth, sulphur, selenium, and tellurium; in a fifth, beryllium, calcium,
strontium, and barium; in a sixth, magnesium, zinc, cadmium, and mercury; in a
seventh, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth [which makes seven groupings
on the one hand. And after showing] .... in other tracts the other
elements—namely, aluminium, gallium, indium, and thallium; silicon, germanium,
and tin; carbon, titanium, and zirconium. . . . [he adds] while a natural position