In the inorganic world, where the great phenomena of 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 aggregations of particles to form masses possessing properties of a peculiar and striking nature--all prove, that agencies, which science, with all its refinements, has not yet detected, are unceasingly at work. Heat, electricity, chemical power--whatever that may be--and the forces of cohesion, are known to be involved in the production of the forms we see; but contemplation soon leads to the conviction that these powers are subordinate to others which we know not of. We know only the things belonging to the surface of our planet, and these but superficially. The geologist traces rock-formations succeeding each other (from the primary strata holding no traces of organized forms, through the Paleozoic series, in which, step by step, the history of animal life is recorded,) to the more recent formations, teeming with relics, which, though allied to some animal types still existing, are generally such as have passed away. The naturalist searches the earth, the waters, and the air, for their living things; and the diversity of form, the variety 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. 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. The solid crusts of this telluric sphere--the waters and the atmosphere--the diversified fabrics of the vegetable kingdom--and the still more complicated structures of men and animals--are, altogether, but the aggregation of minute particles in accordance with certain fixed laws. By mechanical means all kinds of matter may be reduced to powder, the fine particles of which would not appear very different from each other, but each atom has been impressed with properties peculiar to itself, which man has no power to change. To nature alone belongs the mysterious property of transmutation. The enthusiastic alchemist, by the agency of physical forces, dissipates a metal in vapour; but it remains a metal, and the same metal still. By the Hermetic art he breaks up the combination of masses; but he cannot alter the principles of any one of the elements which form the mass upon which his skill is tried. 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?