206 THE EVOLUTION OF CONTINUITY 



force-centre. The particle would have definite quantity and 

 size, and as a repellible or attractable unit could be said 

 to have weight. In other words, through the binding and 

 " insulation " of an infinitesimally small " amount " of 

 kinetic force the phenomenon of Matter may have first 

 appeared. 



If, then, we suppose that the first act of " Creation " 

 was the formation of this bound force-system through the 

 commencing substitution of Force of Attraction for chaos- 

 producing Repulsion, the rest of our theory puts a smaller 

 strain on the imagination. For the alternating mutual 

 induction of Attraction and Repulsion — the former force 

 maintaining and increasing its dominance in the process — 

 could result in the aggregation of ultimate particles into 

 larger systems, as well as the separation or independence 

 of these systems. Thus, the discontinuity of the ultimate 

 particle could be followed by the first form of particu- 

 late Continuity. These multiparticulate systems might be 

 capable of disintegration as the result of special action of 

 Force of Repulsion, and their component particles set free ; 

 but re-formation would keep pace with disintegration, and 

 the loss of one identity go towards the formation of another 

 — possibly one of higher Continuity. In any case, by the 

 steady multiplication of Continuity we could account for 

 the evolution of more and more complex systems up through 

 the atomic to the living segmental. 



At the present day the atom is regarded as being a 

 system of ultimate particles to which the name electrons 

 has been given. But atoms are clearly of different fixed 

 species, and if the electron is truly ultimate, it follows that 

 the special characters of atoms must depend on the quantities 

 and " arrangement " of component electrons ; that is, on 

 the form of Continuity obtaining. 



For the atoms of the different elements are distinguish- 

 able by one marked feature This is their " atomic weight." 

 The atomic weight of an element is the weight of its atom 

 as compared with that of an atom of Hydrogen, taken as 

 1. So the different species of elements are the different 

 species of atoms, and these vary fundamentally in the matter 

 of weight, or in the degree in which they are attracted 

 towards the earth's centre. 



