ON ATOMS. 



taught it to him. Nay, there is an older authority still, 

 in the personage (as near to an abstraction as a tradi- 

 tional human being can be) Moschus (not he of the 

 Idyls). But the fact is that the notion of THE ATOM 

 the indivisible, the thing that has place^ being, and power 

 is an absolute necessity of the human thinking mind, 

 and is of all ages and nations. It underlies all our 

 notions of being, and starts up, per se, whenever we come 

 to look closely at the intimate objective nature of things, 

 as much as space and time do in the subjective. You 

 have dabbled in German metaphysics, and know the 

 distinction I refer to. 



Hermione. You don't mean to say that we are nothing 

 but ATOMS! Place! being! power! Why, that is I, it 

 is you, it is all of us. Nay, nay. This is going too 

 fast 



Hermogenes. Perhaps it is. (You have forgot thought, 

 by-the-by, and will.) But I am not going to make a 

 single hop quite so far. We shall divide that into two 

 or three jumps, and loiter a little in the intermediate 

 resting-places. But, to go back to your atoms and a 

 vacuum. What does a vacuum mean ? 



Hermione. Vacuum] Why, emptiness, to be sure! 

 I mean empty space. Space where no thing is. I am 

 not so very sure that I can realize that notion. It is 

 like the abstract idea of a lord mayor that Pope and 

 Atterbury talk about ; and in getting rid of the man, the 

 gold chain and the custard are apt to start up and vindi- 

 cate their claim to a place in the world of ideas. And 

 yet I do mean something by empty space. I mean dis- 



