68 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



chemical combination there is evidently a genuine inter- 

 penetration on the part of the elements, so that at no 

 minutest point is there to be found any particle of either 

 element untransformed. "Atoms " combine, become inter- 

 fused, mutually penetrate, whenever a chemical reaction 

 takes place. 



Thus, even empirically, the porosity theory, in expla- 

 nation of so-called impenetrability, is found to be unneces- 

 sary, at least in such cases, seeing that in such cases 

 " matter " is really penetrable. And on the theory which 

 we have seen reasons to adopt namely, that the atom 

 is just the nucleus of an indefinitely extended force- 

 sphere porosity appears to be in its ultimate character 

 simply a fiction, having its only claim to reality in the 

 complementary fiction of the absolutely rigid "atom." 



Nor can we too strongly emphasize the proposition that 

 this force-sphere constituting the truth of the "atom" 

 (and, hence, constituting the truth of " matter") is a 

 reality. And because every "atom" is indefinitely or, 

 rather, infinitely extended, then there can be no part of 

 space where there is no force, no physical reality. Doubt- 

 less this plenum presents various and varying degrees of 

 tension, but everywhere it would appear that there must 

 be some degree of tension, some degree of reality. 



Thus, what are called "pores," or inter-atomic spaces, 

 are to be regarded as relative degrees of density in the 

 matter that fills all space. So that when the atoms or 

 molecules of two gases mutually occupy the "pores" of one 

 another, it would seem that the gases really penetrate one 

 another, according to the law that motion takes place in 

 the direction of greatest traction or of least resistance. 

 Least resistance, not no resistance. 



