MATTER AND LIFE FROM WITHIN 73 



by adding 16, 32, or 48 units to the atomic weight 

 of any given body. 



Now this is a state of things for which we can 

 trace no parallel in our world. That may possibly 

 be because we cannot deal with our stars on a scale 

 of sufficient magnitude to survey them as we survey 

 atoms. But so far as we can survey the starry 

 universe, there is no definite and step-by-step gra- 

 dation of stars according to their masses. That 

 such a gradation does exist in the infra-world we 

 must put down to the greater power of the electric 

 forces at work there. 



Why more matter should be associated with 

 positive electricity than with negative is one of 

 those ultimate questions for which we have as yet 

 no solution whatever. Why is the smallest " positive 

 atom " that of hydrogen more than a thousand 

 times heavier than the electron? Why are there 

 no positive electrons ? It has been suggested that 

 electrons are permanent sources of ether, and positive 

 atoms permanent sinks of ether, the ether welling 

 out of transcendental space in the one case, and 

 being drained back into the same space in the other. 

 Such an " explanation " would account for the dis- 

 similarity observed ; but I prefer not to have recourse 

 to " transcendental " conceptions, which may, or may 

 not, have a meaning. Once wo admit that in any 

 universe, however minute its scale, positive electricity 

 is associated with more matter than negative, it is 



