The Life of an Atom.
"Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alex-
ander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?"—Hamlet.
The particles of matter are subject to strange
vicissitudes. Every atom has its peculiar history.
In all probability the countless molecules of carbon,
oxygen, and hydrogen which are aggregated into
this lump of white sugar, met together for the first
time in the juice of the cane. Where were they
before the sugar-cane was planted? Who can tell? One of these atoms of carbon may have coursed through the veins of a Hottentot, another may have existed in the brain of a Laplander!
The old story-tellers never scrupled to endow inanimate objects with the faculty of speech. Let us follow in their footsteps, and create a talking atom. Such a gifted entity might thus recount his adventures in the three kingdoms of nature:—
"I am an atom of carbon. The members of my family are innumerable, and are disseminated throughout the universe. Some of my brethren are grouped together in those diamonds which are so much prized by the strange atomic fabrics called
