NATURE, HISTORY, AND ETHICS 395 



But we must never forget that when we do this we 

 think something into ether that is really not in it. The 

 ether-particles cannot be balls, otherwise they would 

 differ in size and be divisible ; they would, in fact, be 

 bodies with the properties of bodies, and that is just 

 what we must avoid. The ether-particles must have 

 nothing individual about them, and therefore they are 

 unimaginable, and have nothing in common with 

 reality; they lie behind reality, and are metaphysical. 

 Their movements also are unimaginable, as we can 

 only picture to ourselves movements of bodies ; we 

 know no such thing as movements of incorporeal 

 things. 



But, it may be objected, is not reality only apparently 

 individual? Is there not, behind the reality that we see, 

 something that represents the true reality ? And may 

 not this be simple and non-individual ? If that were so, 

 it would be the task of science to pass from the apparent 

 world which we see to the true homogeneous world 

 beyond. 



But such a statement has little value, since no one 

 can prove it. On the contrary, it is highly improbable. 

 The commencement and the advance of the scientific 

 formation of concepts is as no one will question an 

 artificial modification of reality. Only the individual 

 exists, only that appears at a definite spot, is never 

 repeated, and is gone for ever once it is destroyed. 

 When the human mind brings together a number of 

 these bodies, by looking only to their common features, 

 it has no idea of picturing them altogether. How could 



