62 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



On the other hand, should the external conditions 

 change, then the relations between the attractions and 

 repulsions within the atom must change, following upon 

 which or, rather, necessarily accompanying which the 

 volume and the form would undergo change. That is, the 

 "atom" must then prove to be itself an aggregate of an 

 indefinite number of parts, each of which must in the 

 same way prove to be changeable in volume, and hence 

 also to be made up of parts, and so on until the atom slips 

 completely from our grasp, and the irritating, if not terri- 

 fying, "metaphysical" conception of the infinite divisi- 

 bility of matter once more stares us in the face. 



In fact, there is here presented to us an intimation that 

 there is some other relation between the discreteness and 

 the continuity of matter than that of their mutual exclu- 

 sion. And, it may as well be added, this is the one valid 

 excuse for introducing the foregoing discussion of the 

 rigid atom. 



What that other and truer relation really is will, it is 

 hoped, appear in the further course of the argument. 



In resuming, it may be remarked that the tendency of 

 the argument thus far is to show that while, of course, 

 force cannot act save as there is something for it to act 

 upon, the " something" required is not a "matter" as 

 apart from force, but rather it is force itself. Force can 

 in truth act upon nothing else than force. It can, let 

 us repeat, prove itself to be force no otherwise than in the 

 opposition of contrasted phases. Force is exerted only in 

 opposing force, and force not exerted is no force at all. 



In the common acceptation of the term "matter," 

 there is implied just the passive phase of the physical 

 world, while " force" is the active phase. Or, to use 



