308 On tlie Divisibility of Matter. 



807,384,219,648,000 parts visible to the naked eye, and which 

 are unceasingly illuminated by the diffusion of light from a 

 certain portion of matter (combined or uncombined), weighing 

 four ounces, for the space of six hours. Now say, four ounces 

 is 1,920 grains, which, for six hours, will give about -j^ grain 

 per moment ; this -^ grain of matter is thus found to be instan- 

 taneously divided into 170,472,807,384,219,648,000 visible 

 parts ; and consequently each single grain into twelve times 

 that amount which is 2,045,673,688,610,635,776,000, or up- 

 wards of two thousand millions of millions of millions. Now 

 a grain of gold was found divisible into two millions of such 

 parts, it therefore follows, that the divisibility of gold to light, 

 contained in the inflammable matter, supposing the foregoing to 

 be a correct statement, is as 1 to 1,022,836,844,305,317^8^, or 

 as one to above one thousand millions of millions ; and even 

 this may be comparatively trifling, to the probable diffusion of 

 the solar light. 



Our limited powers of comprehension are very inadequate to 

 form just conceptions of infinity, and the preceding view of the 

 divisibility of matter, may perhaps tend, in some degree, to 

 elucidate a subject which, to the generality of those who are 

 not in the habit of studying the power of numbers, would appear 

 possibly as incredible as the immensity of space exhibited in 

 the starry heavens, as laid down in astronomical calculations ; 

 for when we say, that the distance of certain heavenly bodies is 

 millions of millions of miles ; or, that a single grain of matter 

 may be divided into millions of millions of visible parts, a 

 smile of scepticism would with some be the only result of an 

 endeavour to enforce the truth thereof. May it not serve 

 to familiarize the subject to the inquiring mind, to observe, 

 that we may suppose it sufficiently easy to comprehend that the 

 space of the tenth part of an inch may be divided into twenty 

 parts, which is two hundred to the inch. Allow this, and we 

 readily prove that each square inch contains forty thousand, 

 and the solid inch, eight millions such parts ; yet to assert, that 

 a solid inch of matter may be divided into only eight millions, 



