That matter can not be originated, and can not by even a single atom be destroyed, is one of those ultimate statements, upon which physical science itself relies as on a foundation. This is a universally accredited truth, that "no portion of matter, however small, goes out of existence or comes into existence in any operation whatever."[AK] The wonderful chemical laboratory of living organism may change many forms of matter into living tissue, but all returns again to its place in the inorganic mass. Material may pass from one phase into another, but there is nothing more than change. The sum total of material existence is unaltered. To suggest the contrary,--and specially to do so in the name of science,--were to bring science face to face with the conceptions rejected as alien to its very nature; for to say that matter may be originated, is to affirm _creation_; to say that it may be destroyed, is to affirm the possibility of _annihilation_; and these two are beyond the range of science, and if once admitted within its boundaries, they would destroy science itself. So it is when we pass over to the doctrine of energy. The same clear and ultimate conclusion is proclaimed. The doctrine of the conservation of energy is the _ultimatum_ on which physical science finds sure and firm foothold. In those two ultimate positions of scientific research concerning inorganic existence, religion finds support, and that of a kind so powerful, that science itself depends upon its immovability.