Matter. 49 



men from theorising on causes or potencies beyond 

 the objects of human sense. 



(d) Indestructibility is a prime factor in production, 

 for it ensures the ceaseless evolution of new phenomena. 

 We can practically create new compound substances 

 by merely varying the proportions of the old com- 

 ponent constituents of things ; for the contents of 

 thousands of objects, unlike in secondary appearance 

 and properties, consist of the same primary elements 

 mixed only in different atomic proportions. Hence, 

 as the variety of atomic proportions is through the 

 magnitude of the material alphabet exhaustless, the 

 evolution of new material combinations and produc- 

 tions is equally inexhaustible. 



An ever-increasing complexity is thus the rule in 

 the universe, whether in minerals, vegetals, animals, 

 planets, suns or solar systems. 



(e) Indestructibility endows matter with a charmed 

 life, for, as Clerk Maxwell says, " It is independent of 

 the dangers arising from the struggle for existence 

 common to other known existences." In other words, 

 matter as noumena is free from the infirmities imposed 

 by it on its own offspring, phenomena. Hence, while 

 phenomena change ceaselessly, while planets and suns 

 melt away in fervent heat, and gods change from 

 wood and stone idols into conditionless Spirits and 

 agnostic Unknowables, matter in its adamantine atoms 

 remains unchangeable and eternal. 



(2) Etemality and Uncreatability . — That atoms are 



eternal, uncaused, and uncreatable follows of necessity 



D 



