252 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



by the dual transmutation in radio-activity, and we see now 

 how, in this rhythmical action. Force itself is becoming more 

 and more complicated or " assorted " by the formation of 

 more stable association. The " Ultimate Equilibration "formu- 

 lated by Spencer, the final rest in Matter, is thus an impossi- 

 bility, or at least further postponed by a factor unknown in his 

 day, for this dual action must necessarily be regarded as leaving 

 a simplex capable of continuing the complication, not as leaving 

 a complex capable of continuing the simplification. 



The rhythms of Nature are manifested in all changes. They 

 have recently been referred to/ and considered to be the direct 

 result of Cosmic influences, showing themselves, as well in animal 

 and vegetable cells, as if the protoplasm itself had, as it were, 

 absorbed and retained these rhythmical properties from Cosmic 

 sources. This " assimilation " is not confined to protoplasm 

 alone, but is being gradually discovered to be a property of all 

 Matter. The fundamental rhythms obviously serve the uni- 

 versal purpose of storing up more and more Force in an assorted 

 form within the unit with each cyclic change undergone by the 

 unit. It is in such repetition of these actions that the increasing 

 quantities of Force absorbed and complicated has resolved itself 

 into atomic energy within an atom so created, and that the 

 molecule has been produced by the further assortment of this 

 atomic energy into molecular energy. Similarly, colloidal, 

 enzymic, biotic, and psychic energies can be considered the 

 successive steps in this assortment of Force. This " Evolution 

 of Matter " can only be accounted for and explained by 

 assuming that the assorted rhythms of Force were capable of 

 creating, by interaction among themselves, other rhythms as 

 the result of assorted Forces ; that the, interaction of these 

 newer rhythms were capable of producing still other rhythms 

 or vibrations, and so on until a state of high complexity is 

 attained. This is what Spencer was conscious of when he says 

 that Force becomes step by step more heterogeneous. 



It is the development of this conception that concerns us 

 here, for in the light of modern knowledge we are in a better 

 position to elaborate this idea than Spencer ; we are beginning 

 to realise that the basis of Matter itself is the expression of the 

 assortment of Forces. We will apply ourselves to endeavour 

 to show that the formation of these ultra-rhythms is as much a 

 reality as any change we see in the laboratory. A digression 

 into elementary physics is here necessary, for the interaction is 

 more accessible to our understanding in the more primitive and 

 simpler forms of rhythmic motion. 



Let us consider the periodic rhythm responsible for sound. 



If two simultaneous note-vibrations of the same frequency 

 ^ Science Progress, January 1920, p. 418; 



