THOUGHTS ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 15 



to be eliminated from the discussion. Matter has 

 now adjacency and collision, therefore as it could 

 not have had it under the supposed conditions of 

 the objection, it is certain that matter has never 

 (either originally or at any time) taken wholly that 

 mode of progression. 



The only other line is the curve, and around any 

 imaginable figure we can draw an imaginary curve, 

 or circle; and for our purpose the curve or curves 

 must permit if necessary of infinite extension from 

 the centre to the circumference. It is therefore clear 

 that the portions of matter must have moved (either 

 ^originally or ^always) through points in an imaginary 

 circle or circles. The necessity does not exist to bore 

 the reader with long mathematical calculations, the 

 thing is so simple that the calculations and drawings 

 can be made at will. But it is abundantly clear that 

 as the portions of matter moved through points in 

 the circle or circles they must eventually have had 

 adjacency and collision; and as a result spin, and 

 vortical movement and force, followed by gravitation, 

 electricity and magnetism, together with all the 

 natural phenomena with which we are acquainted, 

 including the sensations of heat and light, as the 

 result of material motion. 



Experiment has proved the existence of a con- 

 siderable condensation of energy within the atoms; 

 and we know from observation of radio active and 

 electrical phenomena that the quantity of this energy 

 must be enormous. The energy before the combina- 

 tion into atom, molecule, etc., was once free, and the 



* But the word "once" is preferred. 



