Note 32 — Chapter V · NITROGEN AND AIR

In studying the phenomena of nature the conclusion is arrived at that the universally reigning state of mobile equilibrium forms the chief reason for that harmonious order which impresses all observers. It not unfrequently happens that we do not see the causes regulating the order and harmony; in the particular instance of carbonic anhydride, it is a striking circumstance that in the first instance a search was made for an harmonious and strict uniformity, and in incidental (insufficiently accurate and fragmentary) observations conditions were even found for concluding it to be absent. When, later, the rule of this uniformity was confirmed, then the causes regulating such order were also discovered. The researches of Schloesing were of this character. Deville's idea of the dissociation of the acid carbonates of sea-water is suggested in them. In many other cases also, a correct interpretation can only follow from a detailed investigation.