CHAPTER IV. 



TRUTH OF THE ATOM. PENETRABILITY OF MATTER. 



^TEVEKTHELESS, as already stated, the conception 

 -*--^ of the atom has served an excellent purpose in the 

 progress of physical science. And we have next to in- 

 quire what the truth of this conception is. 



We have seen that the really essential elements of mat- 

 ter in its most rudimentary state must be the two comple- 

 mentary modes of force, attraction and repulsion, and 

 thus have grounds for the assurance that matter consists 

 of, and is nothing apart from, force. It has also become 

 evident that neither of these modes of force can exist in 

 reality, save as in completely blended unity with the 

 other. Indeed, when either is assumed as real, the 

 other necessarily proves to be already contained in it. 

 Or, more strictly speaking, each is not itself merely, but 

 is itself and the other. 



It cannot be too strongly emphasized, then, that in 

 every minutest possible portion of whatever is real, and at 

 the same time characterized by externality, attraction and 

 repulsion must be present in completely blended unity. 

 Or, it may just as well be said, each must be present, both 

 as itself, and the other. And this is but to say that 

 everywhere where " matter" exists there must be at every 

 point a center whence force radiates in every direction, 

 and with an intensity diminishing uniformly with in- 

 crease of distance from that center. 



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