"There are innumerable other molecules, whose constants are not approximately, but absolutely identical with those of the first molecule, and this whether they are found on the earth, in the sun, or in the fixed stars. By what process of evolution the philosophers of the future will attempt to account for this identity in the properties of such a multitude of bodies, each of them unchangeable in magnitude, and some of them separated from others by distances which Astronomy attempts in vain to measure, I cannot conjecture. My mind is limited in its power of speculation, and I am forced to believe that these molecules must have been made as they are from the beginning of their existence. ...we cannot ascribe either their existence or the identity of their properties to the operation of any of those causes which we call natural. Is it true then that our scientific speculations have really penetrated beneath the visible appearance of things which seem to be subject to generation and corruption and reached the entrance of that world of order and perfection which continues this day as it was created perfect in number and measure and weight?"