130. The existence of a unique elementary matter is now generally admitted by science, and is confirmed, as we have seen, by spirits. This matter gives birth to all natural bodies; and, by the transformations which it undergoes, it also produces the different properties of those bodies. It is thus that a salutary substance may be rendered poisonous by a simple modification of its molecular arrangement; a fact of which chemistry offers a vast number of examples. As every one knows, two substances, each of which is in itself innocuous, may produce, when combined in certain proportions, a new substance which is deleterious. One equivalent of oxygen and two equivalents of hydrogen (both, in themselves, inoffensive bodies) combined, become water; add another equivalent of oxygen, and you obtain a corrosive liquid. Moreover, without changing the proportions of chemical equivalents, a mere change in the mode of their molecular aggregation is often sufficient to change the properties of a substance; thus an opaque body may be made transparent, and vice versa Since a spirit possesses, in his will, so powerful an instrument of action upon the elements of matter, it is easy to understand that he may be able, not only to form substances, but also to change the properties of substances; the spirit's will, in such cases, producing the effect of a chemical re-agent.
