THE FABRIC OF MATTER 15 



to quote Gomperz again — " as an element that 

 can be quantitatively determined, are the ' Open 

 Sesame ' that has unlocked countless secrets in the 

 system of nature, and that will unlock countless 

 more." " If," says Huxley, " there is one thing 

 clear about the progress of modern science, it is 

 the tendency to reduce all scientific problems, 

 except those that are purely mathematical, to 

 problems in molecular physics — that is to say, 

 to attractions, repulsions, motions and co-ordina- 

 tions of the ultimate particles of matter." 



Democritus not only laid down these broad and 

 fruitful propositions, he also worked out his theory 

 in detail with great ingenuity, and anticipated 

 some of the ideas of modern chemistry. Thus he 

 pictured groups of atoms, and imagined them fixed 

 together by links, and hooks and eyes, and 

 mortises, and dovetailings. He also drew a dis- 

 tinction between atoms that were sociable and 

 readily linked together, and those that were un- 

 sociable and did not easily combine, or — as we 

 should say in modern terminology — between ele- 

 ments inert and elements chemically active. He 

 even had an idea that some atoms had one point of 

 attachment and others several, and may almost be 

 said to have suggested modern stereo-chemistry. 



After Democritus came Empedocles (the phi- 

 losopher of Mount Etna), in his golden girdle and 



