CHAPTER XII.
MATTER.
General Knowledge About Matter.
It is now to be considered what can be known about matter. Take for illustration sulphur. Its qualities, the way it affects other substances, and the impressions that it makes upon the senses may be known. It is almost tasteless; in combination it has a peculiar odor; it crystallizes, is combustible, and the like. It melts, forming a fluid; vaporizes, and assumes the form of a gas in combination with some other substances. What then is sulphur in its common form? It is sulphur atoms compact and reduced to the most latent state. As such a form, it receives into it the activity of gravity, and is gifted with certain powers of attraction, atomicity, chemical affinity, and like forces. It modifies in a way peculiar to itself the influent rays of light, and bears certain relations to other forms of matter. In such ways and in such degree matter is generally known.
