222 THE KIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



theistic superstition in which he passed the last 

 thirty-four years of his life ; we find him, at the end, 

 giving metaphysical hypotheses on the predictions of 

 Daniel and on the paradoxical fantasies of St. John. 



In fundamental opposition to the theory of vibra- 

 tion, or the kinetic theory of substance, we have the 

 modern " theory of condensation," or the pyknotic 

 theory of substance. It is most ably established in 

 the suggestive work of J. C. Vogt on The Nature of 

 Electricity and Magnetism on the Basis of a Simplified 

 Conception of Substance (1891). Vogt assumes the 

 primitive force of the world, the universal prodynamis, 

 to be, not the vibration or oscillation of particles in 

 empty space, but the condensation of a simple primitive 

 substance, which fills the infinity of space in an 

 unbroken continuity. Its sole inherent mechanical 

 form of activity consists in a tendency to condensation 

 or contraction, which produces infinitesimal centres of 

 condensation ; these may change their degree of thick- 

 ness, and, therefore, their volume, but are constant as 

 such. These minute parts of the universal substance, 

 the centres of condensation, which might be called 

 pyknatoms, correspond in general to the ultimate 

 separate atoms of the kinetic theory ; they differ, 

 however, very considerably in that they are credited 

 with sensation and inclination (or will-movement of 

 the simplest form), with souls, in a certain sense — in 

 harmony with the old theory of Empedocles of the 

 " love and hatred of the elements." Moreover, these 

 " atoms with souls " do not float in empty space, but 

 in the continuous, extremely attenuated intermediate 

 substance, which represents the uncondensed portion 

 of the primitive matter. By means of certain "con- 

 stellations, centres of perturbation, or systems of 



