IDENTICAL CHANGES 



Because atoms are not round (Prop. VI, B. 1), 

 their pertuberances and projections must engage 

 one another, and again the whole tension of the 

 Universe must prevent the scattering of identities 

 of the second and farther degrees of organization. 

 And the more complex any identity is, the greater 

 will be the interstices between parts composing its 

 highest degree of complexity, and, therefore, in a 

 greater degree subject to dismemberment. 



The study of cohesion from this standpoint offers 

 an enticing field for investigation and invention. 

 The tempering of steel, the annealing of glass, the 

 crossing of fibres, all these and many other prob- 

 lems would be greatly advanced by a true knowl- 

 edge of the nature of cohesion. 



And in the study of heat, magnetism, light and 

 electricity a knowledge of the form assumed by 

 atoms of elementary substances would be of ines- 

 timable value. 



Yet such knowledge cannot be acquired under 

 the theory that atoms are primary identities, or 

 the result of a synchronic dance of vibration. The 

 atomic theory -has been of great advantage to prac- 

 tical chemistry and has made of it almost an 

 exact science. 



A further step would be a recognition that the 

 forms of atoms are no more similar than their 

 atomic weights. 



And by successive approximation, guided by 

 atomic weights and by valence and periodical laws, 

 a laying together in closest contact of equal spheres 

 149 



