PHILOSOPHIC ANTS 191 



ing particles. As we got still smaller, we should, 

 now and again, find the nearly uniform bombard- 

 ment replaced by a concerted attack on one side or 

 the other, and we should be hurled for perhaps double 

 our own length in one direction. If we could con- 

 ceivably enter into a single inorganic molecule, we 

 should find ourselves one of a moving host of 

 similar objects: and we should further perceive that 

 these objects were themselves complex, some like 

 double stars, others star-clusters, others single suns, 

 and all again built of lesser units held in a definite 

 plan, in an architecture reminding us (if we still had 

 memory) of a solar system in petto. If we were 

 lucky enough to be in a complicated fluid like sea- 

 water, we should be intrigued by the relations of the 

 difi'erent kinds of particles. They would be continu- 

 ally coming up to other particles of different kinds, 

 and would then sometimes enter into intimate union 

 with them. If we could manage to follow their his- 

 tory, we should find that after a time they would 

 separate, and seek new partners, of the same or of 

 different species. Some kinds of the units, or people 

 as we should be inclined to call them, would spend 

 most of their existence in the married state, others 

 would apparently prefer to rem.ain single, or, if they 

 married, would within no long time obtain divorce. 

 We should be forcibly reminded of life in some 

 cosmopolitan city like London or New York. If 

 there existed a registrar to note down the events of 

 these little beings' existence, and we were privileged 



