MATTER 99 



as electrical force seems to vanish ; and if it 

 appear in matter in the form of vibrations, 

 giving rise to sound and colour, etc., who shall 

 venture to call it still electricity ? 



Still, leaving aside the question of the electrical 

 character of matter " en masse^' the fact remains that 

 by various means it can be broken up into what 

 are called electric charges. 



The cursory and desultory survey of scientific 

 and philosophic theories in Chapter III. will show 

 that, from all time, both science and philosophy 

 had been inclined to regard motion as essential to 

 the explanation of the phenomena of matter ; and 

 that, therefore, the analysis of matter into electrical 

 charges in motion came as no surprise, and was 

 quite in accordance with the anticipations of hypo- 

 thesis. The discovery could easily be made to fit 

 Boscovitch's points of force, for instance, or even 

 Kelvin's vortex-rings of Leibnitz's monads ; and 

 though it finally destroyed the conception of matter 

 as passive and inert, that was merely slaying the 

 slain. 



Nor had the discovery been unforeseen. In 

 1875 W- ^- Clifford declared: "Now there is 

 great reason to believe that every material atom 

 carries upon it a small electric current, // it does 

 not wholly consist of this current^ Again : " The 

 position is this. We know with great probability 



