174 PROGRESS OP SCIENCE IN THE CENTURY. 



face with the astounding conception of fragments of 

 atoms, of foundation-stones of atoms, of a unifica- 

 tion of all matter in terms of corpuscles of which five 

 hundred or so go to an atom of hydrogen. But the 

 daring speculation carries us further to doubt 

 whether there is any matter at all, or rather whether 

 inertia is not fundamentally electrical. 



Matter and Ether. We have previously spoken 

 of one of the aims of science as that of finding the 

 common denominator of the fractions of reality 

 which we know. For a time the word Matter was a 

 conspicuous part of this common denominator, but 

 the nineteenth century has left us ignorant of its 

 real nature, and aware only of some of its many 

 properties, and even of many of these properties how 

 little we know. " Impenetrability," the text-books 

 say, and yet Boscovich and Maxwell seem to regard 

 it as conceivable that two atoms should occupy the 

 same space. " Inertia," the text-books say, and yet 

 how little we know of the meaning of this term, how 

 doubtful Lodge seems to be whether there is any but 

 electrical inertia ! 



The common denominator would now read " the 

 relations of matter, energy, and ether." But the fact 

 is that the scientific conception of matter tends to be- 

 come more and more monistic. Some years ago wo 

 thought of material atoms and molecules, floating in 

 ether, like the crowds of minute organisms in the 

 plankton of the ocean. But various attempts have 

 been made, as Prof. Poynting puts it, " to get rid 

 of the dualism " : Boscovich's theory of point-cen- 

 tres surrounded by an infinitely extending atmos- 

 phere of force, Faraday's theory of point-centres with 

 radiating lines of force, Lord Kelvin's theory of 

 atoms as vortices or whirls in a perfect fluid ether, 



