THE WORLD OF ATOMS 



MOST people have heard of the oriental race which puz- 

 zled over the foundations of the universe, and decided 

 that it must be supported on the back of a giant ele- 

 phant. But the elephant? They put it on the back of a monstrous 

 tortoise, and there they let the matter end. If every animal in 

 nature had been called upon, they would have been no nearer a 

 foundation. Most ancient peoples, indeed, made no effort to find 

 a foundation. The universe was a very compact little structure, 

 mainly composed of the earth and the great canopy over the earth 

 which they called the sky. They left it, as a whole, floating in 

 nothing. And in this the ancients were wiser than they knew. 

 Things do not fall down unless they are pulled down by that 

 mysterious force which we call gravitation. The earth, it is true, 

 is pulled by the sun, and would fall into it ; but the earth escapes 

 this fiery fate by circulating at great speed round the sun. The 

 stars pull each other ; but it has already been explained that they 

 meet this by travelling rapidly in gigantic orbits. Yet we do, in 

 a new sense of the word, need foundations of the universe. 

 Our mind craves for some explanation of the matter out of 

 which the universe is made. For this explanation we turn to 

 modern Physics and Chemistry. Both these sciences study, 

 under different aspects, matter and energy; and between them 

 they have put together a conception of the fundamental nature 

 of things which marks an epoch in the history of human 

 thought. 



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