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 1 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 



