- 134 On the Atomic Philosophy. 
points, being but one in species, constitute all the various forms of 
matter in the universe; and, that the sanie specific matter should 
compose a guinea or a lock of hair. A mysterious power was 
supposed to reside in these atoms, or essence of matter, called 
repulsion; in this state of the hypothesis, a question arose,—In 
an aggregate of these points, what was it that filled up the inter- 
stices? It was plain it could not be matter; for although the 
essence was solid, that could not be the case with an aggregate 
of these points; the interstices must be occupied with nothing. 
Therefore it was necessary, in order to complete the hypothesis, 
that this zo¢hing should be personified, and from hence arose the 
invention of a vacuum. I shall pass over the learned disputes 
whether this nothing was created, or whether it possessed the 
attributes of the Deity, infinite and eternal, or merely a local ap- 
pendage to aggregates of matter, and simply remark, that the 
parts of this hypothesis are so interwoven, that if any one of 
them should be removed, the whole must crumble away. 
Unfortunately for this system, it admits of no proof; and what 
is singularly remarkable, its advocates have been principally ma- 
thematicians. It has even been called the mechanical philosophy ; 
and yet it is incapable of demonstration. A mathematical point 
may be imagined; as also the division of a line into an infinite 
number of parts, but practically we all know these to be among 
the impossible things. The doctrine of repulsion was necessary 
to the support of the doctrine pf matter consisting of mathetna- 
tical points, and the moderns have personified it, and say that 
caloric is the great repulsive power. It is easy to conceive a 
pestle to be a repulsive power, in the operation of pounding a 
substance in a mortar; but nat so easv to suppose a glass of 
water to have the repulsive power of grinding a himp of sugar 
into mathematical points, which should remain suspended in it. 
It appears to me something like arguing in a circle: Matter must 
consist of atoms, because there is a repulsive power ; and a re- 
pulsive power must exist, because matter consists of mathema- 
tical points. The ancients considered repulsien to be a quality; 
the moderns, a substance; calorie they conceive to be balls of 
various dimensions, and tangible matter (as opposed to mathe- 
matical points) to consist of these points insinuated into and 
occupying the centre of the caloric balls, not unlike the apple in 
a dumpling. And here { cannot help feeling some regret at be- 
ing compelled to erase from my dictionary, a word of great pith 
and meaning, homogeneous; for surely it never can be said that 
there is any homogeneity in matter thus compounded. 
The personification of nothing, or a vacuum, is as necessary 
to the moderns as to the ancients. To the ancients, it was ne- 
cessary to fill up the interstices of their mathematical points, and 
to 
