The laws of chemical combination, of the various modes of motion, of all organic growth, show that simple numerical relations govern all the properties and are inherent to the very constitution of matter; more marvellous still, the most recent and severe inductions of physicists show that precisely those two numbers on whose symbolical value much of the edifice of ancient mythology was erected, the _four_ and the _three_, regulate the molecular distribution of matter and preside over the symmetrical development of organic forms.
This asks no faith, but only knowledge; it is science, not revelation.
In view of such facts is it presumptuous to predict that experiment itself will prove the truth of Kepler's beautiful saying: "The universe is a harmonious whole, the soul of which is God; numbers, figures, the stars, all nature, indeed, are in unison with the mysteries of religion"?
FOOTNOTES: [67-1] Buckingham Smith, _Gram.

Notices of the Heve Language_, p.

26 (Shea's Lib.Am.

Linguistics).
[68-1] I refer to the four "ultimate elementary particles" of Empedocles.

The number was sacred to Hermes, and lay at the root of the physical philosophy of Pythagoras.