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the slightest scientific grounds for assuming that matter existed
in a certain condition from all eternity. The essential activity
of the powers ascribed to it forbids the thought; for all that we
know, and, indeed, as the _conclusion_ from all that we know,
primal matter began its progressive changes on the morning of its
existence."
Finally, in reference to the hypothesis of a unique determination
of matter after eternal duration in the past, it may not be out
of place to remind the reader of the complexity which modern
research ascribes to the structure of the atom.
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