1 6 MOTION WITHIN ATOMS. 



invaginated into one another with the ether 

 pressed out ; whilst in gases they are 

 expanded with ether, and that in proportion 

 to the ether absorbed. (Hovenden.) 



Scientists are then not at one as to what 

 the primitive matter was, nor as to the 

 nature of the atoms. What the original 

 matter was is perhaps of less importance 

 to science than what and whence the atoms, 

 because it is by the atoms and their unions 

 and combinations that all the materials 

 and phenomena of nature are produced. 

 One thing about the atoms is certain, 

 namely, that they are always in motion, 

 are centres of motion, the centres of all 

 cosmic activities, that they are endowed 

 with innate power of self-movement, 6 



6 " The primal atoms with their inalienable motion." 

 DALLINGER, p. 48. 



" Movement is an innate and original property of matter." 



HyECKEL. 



If a steel magnet of one inch length were cut into two 

 half-inches, one end of each half would manifest attraction 

 and the other repulsion ; so if each half-inch were cut into 

 two, the ends of each quarter-inch would similarly manifest 

 attraction and repulsion ; and so again, if each quarter- 

 inch were bisected, the ends of each eighth would manifest 

 similar attraction and repulsion : and so would the ends 

 of each particle were the bisection carried as far as sight 

 could follow. Nor would this attraction and repulsion 

 cease were sub-division carried as far as the particles could 

 be detected by the microscope ; and if carried to the very 

 atoms, each would necessarily possess similar attraction and 

 repulsion. 



