282 THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



of the geometrical forms by which we symbolise physical 

 bodies, so that the motion describes to any required degree 

 of accuracy our routine of sense-impressions, is the scope 

 of physical science. We find that by assuming certain 

 laws for the relative motion of these conceptual symbols 

 — the laws of motion in their widest sense — we are able 

 to construct a world of geometrical forms moving in 

 conceptual space and time, which describe with wonderful 

 exactness the complex phases of our perceptual experience. 



S 2. — The Limits to Mechaitism 



Let us now resume the elements of our conceptual 

 model of the physical universe in a purely diagrammatic 

 manner.^ An asterisk shall represent the ether-element, 



^*% 







Ether-Units Prime Atom Chemical Atom Molecule(-0 Particle (-v) Body . 



Fig. 21. 



a ring of asterisks will suggest the prime-atom probably 

 constructed from a special ether-element motion — for 

 example, a vortex-ring. One, two, or more prime-atoms 

 form the chemical atom, and for its symbol we will take 

 three interlaced rings. Combinations of chemical atoms 

 form the molecule, in our diagram represented by two 

 chemical atoms of three and one of two prime-atoms. 

 Millions of these molecules, of which we can only represent 

 a few by the shorthand symbol i , would form the particle 

 (shorthand symbol V), while millions of particles, here 

 merely suggested, conceptually enclosed by a continuous 

 surface, symbolise the physical bodies of our perceptual ex- 

 perience. These concepts, from ether-element to particle, 

 it must be borne in mind, have no perceptual equiva- 

 lents, and it is only by experiments on the perceptual 

 equivalent of the last of the series, the conceptual body, 



^ The diagram is only to suggest the physical relationships to the reader, 

 and has no meaning from the standpoint of relative size or form. 



