414 ON ATOMS. 



Hermogenes. — Perhaps it is. — (You have forgot thought, hy-the-by, and will.) 

 But I am not going to make a single hop quite so far. We shall divide that 

 into two or three jumps, and loiter a little in the intermediate resting-places. 

 But, to go back to your atoms and a vacuum. What does a vacuum mean ? 



Herviione. — Vacuimi ? Why, emptiness, to be sure ! I mean empty space. 

 Space where no tJiinq is. I am not so very sure that I can realize that notion. 

 It is like the abstract idea of a lord mayor that Pope and Atterbury talk about; 

 and in getting rid of the man, the gold chain and the custard are apt to start up 

 and vindicate their claim to a place in the world of ideas. And yet I do mean 

 something by empty space. I mean distance — I mean direction : that steeple is 

 a mile off", and not here "where we sit ; and it lies southeast of us, and not north 

 or Avest. And jf the steeple Avere aAvay, I should have just as clear a notion of 

 its place as if I saw it there. There now ! But then distance and direction 

 imjily two places. So there are three things anyhow that belong to a vacuum ; 

 and let me tell you, it is not everything that three things positively intelligible 

 can be "predicated" of (to speak your jargon.) 



Hermogenes. — Dear me, Hcrmione ! how can you twit me so? Jargon! 

 Every specialty has its "jargon." Even the law, that system of di'eams, has 

 its "jargon" — the more so, to be sure, because it is a system of dreams, or 

 rath(n- of nightmares, (God forgive mc for saying so !) Well, then, 3'ou. seem 

 to have tolerably clear notions about a vacuum — at least, I cannot make them 

 clearer. ]\Iuch clearer, anyhow, than Descartes had, Avho maintained that if 

 it were not for the foot-rule between them, the two ends of it Avould be in the 

 same place. Still, there is much to be said about that same Vacuum, especially 

 when contrasted Avith a Plenum, which means (if it mean anything) the exact 

 opposite of a racuujn. In other Avords, a "jam," a "blocl^," a "fix." But, on 

 the Avhole, I lean to a vacuum. The other idea is oppressiA'e. It does not allow 

 one to brealhe. There is no elbow-room. It seems to realize the notion of that 

 great human squeeze in Avhicli we should be landed after a hundred generations 

 of unrestrained propagation.* One does not understand hoAV anything could 

 get out of the Avay of anything else. 



Hermione. — Do come back to our dear atoms. I love these atoms : the deli- 

 cate little creatures ! There is something so fanciful, so fairy-like about them. 



Hermogenes. — Well ; they have their idiosyncrasies. , I mean they obey the 

 laAvs of their being. They comport themselves according to their primary con- 

 stitution. They conform to the fixed rule implanted in them in the instant of 

 their creation. The3^ act and react on each other according to the rigorously 

 exact, mathematically determinate relations laid down for them ah initio. They 

 work out the preconceived scheme of the universe by their — their 



Hcrmione — Their 1 Stop, stop ! my dear Hermogenes. Where Avill you 

 land us 1 Obey laws ! Do they know them ? Can they remember them ? 

 How else can tliey obey them ? Comport themselves according to their primary 

 constitution ! Well, that is so far intelligible : they are as they are, and not as 

 they are not. Conform to a fixed rule ! But then they must be able to apply 

 the rule as the case arises. Act and react according to determinate relations ! 

 I suppose you mean relations with each other. But hoAv are they to knoAv those 

 relations ? Here is your atom A, there is your atom B, (I speak as you have 

 taught me to speak,) and a long interval between them, and no link of connection. 



* For tlic benefit of those who discuss the subjects of Population, War, Pestilence, Famine, 

 «S:c.. it n;ay be as well to mention that the number of human beings living at the end of the 

 hundreJtb generation, commencing from a single pair, doubling at each generation, (say in 

 thirty years,) ar. 1 allowing for each man, woman, and child an average space of four feet in 

 height, and one toot square, Avould form a A'crtical colunm, having for its base the irvhoie sur- 

 face of the caith and sea spread out into a plane, and for its height 3,674 times the sun's dis- 

 tance from 41r>. ea) th ! The number of human strata thus piled one on the other Avould amount 

 to 4GO,7'JU,UUU,UuO,000. 



