AP Success - AP English Language: The Poetry of Science

In contemplating works of nature, we cannot but regard,

with feelings of religious admiration, the infinite variety of

forms under which matter is presented to our senses. On

every hand, the utmost diversity is exhibited; through all

5

things we trace the most perfect order; and overall is diffused

the charm of beauty. It is the uneducated or depraved alone,

who find deformities in the creations by which we are

surrounded.

The three conditions of matter are, the solid, the fluid,

10

and the aeriform; and these belong equally to the organic and

inorganic world.

In organic nature we have an almost infinite variety of

animal form, presenting developments widely different from

each other; yet in every case suited to the conditions required

15

by the position which the creature occupies in the scale of

being. Through the entire series, from the Polype to the

higher order of animals, even to man, we find a uniformity

in the progress towards perfection, and a continuity in the

series, which betrays the great secret, that the mystery of life

20

is the same in all—a pervading spiritual essence associated

with matter, and modifying it by the master-mechanism of an

Infinite mind.

In the vegetable clothing of the surface of the earth,

which fits it for the abode of man and animals—from the

25

confervae1

 of a stagnant pool, or the lichen of the windbeaten rock, to the lordly oak or towering palm—a singularly

beautiful chain of being, and of gradual elevation in the scale

of organization, presents itself to the contemplative mind.

In the inorganic world, where the great phenomena of

30

life are wanting, we have constantly exhibited the working

of powers of a strangely complicated kind. The symmetrical

arrangement of crystals—the diversified characters of

mineral formations—the systematic aggregation of particles

to form masses possessing properties of a peculiar and

35

striking nature—all prove that agencies, which science

with all its refinements has not detected, are unceasingly at

work….

The naturalist searches the earth, the waters, and the air,

for their living things; and the diversity of form, the variety

40

of condition, and the perfection of organization which he

discovers as belonging to this our epoch—differing from,

indeed bearing but a slight relation to, those which mark

the earth’s mutations—exhibit in a most striking view the

endless variety of characters which matter can assume.

45

We are so accustomed to all these phenomena of matter,

that it is with some difficulty we can bend ourselves to the

study of the more simple conditions in which it exists….

To nature alone belongs the mysterious power of

transmutation. The enthusiastic alchemist, by the agency of

50

physical power, dissipates a metal in vapour; but it remains

a metal, and the same metal still. By the Hermetic art, he

breaks up the combinations of masses; but he cannot alter the

principles of any one of the elements which formed the mass

upon which his skill is tried.

55

Every atom is invested with properties peculiar to all of

its class; and each one possesses powers, to which in mute

obedience it is compelled, by which these properties are

modified, and the character of matter varied. What are those

properties? Do we know anything of those powers?