RHYTHM 



direction become gradually altered in their dis- 

 tribution, and in their amounts, until the direc- 

 tion of the motion becomes practically reversed ; 

 and whether the given portion of matter be a 

 planet or a molecule, the dynamic principle re- 

 mains the same. Just as Newton's law of in- 

 verse squares applies to molecules as well as to 

 masses, so the law of rhythm applies in both 

 cases. Thus what we may call the elementary 

 motions going on throughout the world of phe- 

 nomena — the elementary motions by the vari- 

 ous combinations of which all perceptible mo- 

 tions are made up — are all rhythmical or os- 

 cillatory. The phenomena which are presented 

 to our consciousness as light, heat, electricity, 

 and magnetism, are the products of a perpetual 

 trembling, or swaying to and fro of the invisible 

 atoms of which visible bodies are composed. 

 When we contemplate the heavens on a clear 

 autumn evening, and marvel at the beauty of 

 Sirius, that beauty is conveyed to our senses 

 through the medium of atomic shivers, kept up 

 during the past twenty-two years, at the average 

 rate of six hundred millions of millions per sec- 

 ond. The difference between the tropical heat 

 of India and the cold of the Arctic regions is 

 simply the measure of untold millions of tiny 

 differences in the rates of oscillation of count- 

 less atoms of atmospheric gases, determined 

 in turn by innumerable oscillatory movements 

 169 



