366 On the Origin of Matter. 



pable of encompassing the earth, or about 24,000 miles in 

 length ! But the wonders of art sink into nothing, when com- 

 pared with tliose which nature produces; for Mr. Leuwenhoek, 

 the celebrated microscopic observer, affirms, that he has 

 counted two millions of animalcula in a portion of the milt 

 of a cod-fish not longer than a common grain of sand ! ! 

 That matter is thus infinitely divisible, also admits of demon- 

 stration on mathematical principles." 



In the above cited passage, the infinite divisibility of matter 

 is defined by its being said, that the elementary particles of 

 which matter is composed, are " small beyond conception," by 

 which term I apprehend, nothing more can be understood, than 

 that an elementary particle of matter is a body of insensible 

 magnitude ; for magnitude is certainly affirmed of it, although 

 not of a nature sufficiently gross to be obvious to the senses. 

 Let this magnitude then be the smallest possible, and it will 

 be a magnitude that, as we have already seen, cannot be di- 

 vided : whence it appears that a thing " small beyond con- 

 ception," or rather beyond the powers we possess of bringing 

 its magnitude into sensible perception, is not on that ac- 

 count infinitely divisible, but only indefinitely so. In like 

 manner, in the instance which is adduced of the attenuation of 

 particles of copper in solution, the author observes, that a 

 single drop of the solution, containing but an " almost im- 

 measurably small portion of copper," will deposit, by the 

 division of its particles, a coat of copper upon as large a 

 surface of steel as the drop will wet ; which," he proceeds to 

 observe, " shows how infinitely the copper can be divided." 

 But such a conclusion by no means follows : for the term 

 " almost immeasurably small " implies, at most, nothing further 

 than the state of indefinite division-, and this state bears no 

 relation to that (ideal state) of infinite division. The same 

 may be said of the divisibility and tenuity of gold ; namely, 

 that those qualities afford no proof that gold is infinitely 

 tenuous or divisible; for even although a pound of that 

 metal, as instanced by the Professor, may be sufficiently te- 

 nuous to be made to cover a silver wire capable of encom- 

 passing the earth, yet this, so far from proving it to be infi- 

 nitely divisible, does not even prove that it would gild a wire 

 capable of encompassing the planet Jupiter : and there are 

 yet many far gi'eater and readily conceivable finite magni- 

 tudes, — the orbits of the planets, for example. 



With respect to the assertion, " That matter is thus infinitely 

 divisible, also admits of demonstration on mathematical prin- 

 ciples" — this, as I have before shown, cannot be maintained, 

 unless it can be proved that the point, origin, or first principle, 



from 



