﻿Mr. Whelpley on the Idea of an Atom. 353 



" The natural motion of an atom, is neither that motion of de- 

 scent, which is called natural, nor its opposite ; nor one of expan- 

 sion or contraction, nor rotatory, nor any one of the great mo- 

 tions simply. But, notwithstanding this, in the body of an atom 

 are the elements of all bodies, and in the nature of an atom the 

 beginning of all motions and of all natural properties."* 



The Greek word atomos is usually taken to signify a particle j 

 as though from a and temno, meaning 'a portion cut off:' but a 

 more probable derivation takes it from the Sanscrit atma, a hali- 

 tus, or spirit ; whence also the Greek atmos, a smoke or vapor. 

 But atmu, in the philosophy of India, signified the substance, or 

 essence, out of which the world was made ; and purum atma 

 signifies Deity, or the pure Spirit, out of whom all things sprang, 

 in the forms of nature, souls, spirits, and divinities. 



The Vedanta philosophy, of which purum atma was the first 

 principle and fundamental idea, originated in Indostan more than 

 five centuries before the age of Pythagoras. 



The philosophical idea of an atom,f requires, that it be com- 

 posed of the very first principle of things ; and since an atom is 

 an idea, or notion, only, at the best, it is composed, if we may 

 be allowed the word, of mere intellect; and this is the atma, 

 or first matter; (for why should we confound experience of 

 things, with an ideal system of science constructed from that 

 experience?) 



We know that invention, and judgment, work by ideas ab- 

 stracted from experience; not by experience itself: for, if it were 

 not so, the sage would have no advantage over the clown : Facts 

 are valued, only in the service of ideas, being nothing, of them- 

 selves. 



* Fable of Cupid, Works of Lord Bacon, Vol. I, Am. edition. 



t In a preceding article of this number, composed by Professor Hare, some ex- 

 tracts are given, from an article by Sir M. Faraday, published in the London and 

 Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine; by which it appears, that I am partly antici- 

 pated, in this idea of an atom ; as far at least, as regards the extension of the forces 

 of atoms through space, and their partial interpenetration when chemically com- 

 bined. Sir M . Faraday was also the first to show, that electricity is a motion prop- 

 agated in the molecules of bodies. The famous hypothesis of Boseovich anti- 

 cipates the opinion, that atoms are composed of forces, which extend through 

 space ; and the German " nature-philosophy" supposes, that the creation of things 

 is effected by a resolution of the first principle into positive and negative, or 

 masculine and feminine; an idea taken from the Hindoo shastras, and perhaps 

 older than the pyramids. 



