﻿410 Dr. Guyot on the Forms and Forces of Matter. 



totality which extends to the whole universe and occupies all 

 space. I say that this matter grouped in atoms occupies all the 

 universe ; I do not say that it fills it, because the universe is 

 filled by elementary matter, — simple, subtle, impressible, im- 

 ponderable, not atomized or grouped in atoms (non atomizee, 

 non group ee en atomes). Not but that its element is an atom, 

 for it is indeed the absolute atom ; but this atom is free from 

 all combination, it is infinitely more subtle than any atom of 

 coercible matter. 



The existence of this incoercible matter has always been ad- 

 mitted by the greatest philosophers and the greatest physicists 

 under the name of the subtle substance, or, more generally, 

 sether. 



iEther, in fact, constitutes the fourth state and the fourth 

 medium of matter. It is the most abundant of the states -, it 

 is the medium of media. It contains all the stars, all the pla- 

 nets, all the satellites. It fills up all the intervals of their at- 

 mospheres, of their oceans, and of their solid cores. It penetrates 

 into all gaseous, liquid, and solid bodies, and fills up the inter- 

 vals of their molecules. In a word, sether is to some extent, in 

 regard to the ponderable matter of the universe, what " mother- 

 liquors " are to the crystalline matter which they hold in solu- 

 tion, and to the crystals which are formed within them. iEther 

 is the mother-liquor of the world. All space void of coercible 

 matter is occupied by it. Not only is there no such thing as 

 an absolute vacuum in nature, but, on the contrary, ponderable 

 and imponderable matter are in an absolute and relative condi- 

 tion of enormous tension. The equilibrium and the phenomena 

 of the world only exist under the condition of the constant 

 pressure of the incoercible matter upon the coercible matter and 

 the reaction of the coercible matter upon the incoercible. 



On Movement, or the Forces of Matter. 



Matter has only one property — namely, movement. Movement 

 can only exhibit itself to our senses and to our spirit of induc- 

 tion through matter and in matter. And, reciprocally, matter 

 is only perceptible to our senses and comprehensible by our 

 minds by its movements. Movement is inherent in and essen- 

 tial to the smallest atoms, as well as to the greatest material 

 systems. In the whole universe we cannot discover a single 

 particle of matter which is in absolute rest. Matter and move- 

 ment are two creations of the same principle ; they are consub- 

 stantial, and accordingly proportional to one another. 



The first notion which we can have of motion cannot arise 

 from the infinitely small molecules of bodies, because they es- 

 cape the impressionability of our senses. They reach us, there- 



