THE ORGANISATION OF MATTER 



CLASSIFICATION is a necessity, for all science is 

 co-ordinated knowledge, but classifications may 

 be misleading. They are apt to erect barriers 

 between things which Nature has connected 

 by continuous gradations. Nothing could be 

 more distinct than the islands of an archi- 

 pelago, but soundings show submerged ridges 

 connecting them to each other and to the 

 common sea-bed on which they rest. 



Thus the division of Nature into three 

 kingdoms is as old as human thought an animal, 

 a plant, a stone. Nothing could be more simple 

 and distinct, or appeal more readily to the 

 mind, and three is a number dear to the gods. 

 But simplicity exists only in our mind. Nature 

 is infinitely complicated and provides between 

 its types innumerable transitions, such as we 

 find between the three states of matter solid, 

 liquid and gaseous. It is to-day an established 



fact that no clear line of demarcation exists 



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