CHAPTER II 



THE UNIT GROWTH- CYCLE 



As has already been said, we do not really know what the 

 ultimate unit of Matter is. It may be that the future will 

 reveal it as a relatively " insulated " revolving force-system, 

 in a sense independent, and of definite " charge," and whose 

 reaction must be one or the other of the two opposing 

 reactions of the universal Force ; that is, one of Attraction 

 or of Repulsion. In other words, Matter may simply be 

 potential energy. At the present time the smallest material 

 particle recognised by science is the electron. It will make 

 for greater simplicity and brevity, however, if we attribute 

 ultimate characters to the atom, and take this complex 

 particle as our growth-unit, and the atomic cycle as the 

 unit growth-cycle. And we shall look for evidence that 

 all higher growth-cycles are but multiple expressions of 

 this unit growth-cycle. 



It is to be repeated that all cycles are essentially cycles 

 of states or conditions, being represented by the diagram, 



HAttVo* 



tf< 



but they may also be regarded as cycles of acts. Thus, 

 although atoms do not exist in the free state, nevertheless 

 they must be momentarily free when repelled or split off 

 from given attachments ; and in this sense it can be said 

 that the Atomic Cycle begins with an act of attraction 

 between two atoms which results in loss of independent 

 identity, followed by an act of repulsion leading to the 

 restoration or reproduction of independent identity — when 



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