Does Matter Exist? 



which we know is beginning to be too vast and 

 too complicated for them. Inertia to-day holds 

 its place in our belief thanks only to mental 

 indolence, and to the absence of a co-ordinated 

 system of more appropriate hypotheses. 



Those who believe in the inertia of matter as 

 in a scientific dogma would do well to study 

 the Brownian movement, by observing through a 

 powerful microscope a small quantity of Chinese 

 ink diluted with water ; they will see in the field 

 of the instrument solid grains in incessant motion, 

 hurrying to and fro, spinning round like dervishes, 

 then stopping, only to start again ; this goes on 

 for years, and our observations show that it 

 may continue for ever ; as a matter of fact some 

 crystals of quartz are known which contain a 

 small and entirely enclosed cavity full of liquid, 

 in which may be seen a tiny gas bubble in cease- 

 less agitation, and this tremor has no doubt been 

 continuing evei since the fiist ages of the world, 

 when the bubble was shut up in its quartz 

 prison. 



Moreover, all our knowledge regarding Nature 

 confirms this view that the final elements of 

 matter are in a state of perpetual and spontane- 



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