120 THE BIOCOSMQS CELLULAR. 



also the result of an epochal separation of a 

 material object, for instance, water), has now 

 many electrons, which indeed vary in every 

 elemental atom and are supposed to consti- 

 tute its distinct character. So we whiz from 

 the small to the smaller, but have probably 

 not yet gotten to the smallest. For the elec- 

 tron, the last and as yet least Diacosmical 

 product, is already showing signs of disinte- 

 gration in its turn; yea, it bore such a sign 

 as its birth-mark in the two antagonistic 

 electricities (positive and negative), of which 

 it is said to be composed. Manifestly the 

 divisive process cannot stop on this side of 

 the ultimate universal element of all ele- 

 ments, now conceived as ether. And this 

 ether cannot fail to have its corresponding 

 small constituent unit, the etherion; and as 

 atomicity has been succeeded by electricit}^ 

 (or electronicity), so electricity likewise must 

 pass down the line and be followed perchance 

 by ethericity. (See Cosmos and Diacosmos, 

 pp. 426, 554-60, etc.) This is of course merely 

 glancing ahead, possibly far ahead, and so 

 it runs the danger of all prophecy. But we 

 must recollect that the molecule, the atom, 

 the ion, and the electron are as yet purely 

 hypothetical, and, from the strict scientific 

 standpoint of sense-perception, they are 

 wholly unproved and possibly unprovable. 



