The actual presence of the elements reinforced the feeling that these were indeed the elemental building blocks of the universe, that the whole universe was here, in microcosm, in South Kensington. I had an overwhelming sense of Truth and Beauty when I saw the periodic table, a sense that this was not a mere human construct, arbitrary, but an actual vision of the eternal cosmic order, and that any future discoveries and advances, whatever they might add, would only reinforce, reaffirm, the truth of its order.
