540 
THE CONSTITUTION OP BODY. 
dialectitians; but also, like them, upon being touched with the wand of criticism, 
it collapses like a soap-bubble, and leaves behind nothing but surprise that a 
man of such reputation should have put forward an answer so inconsequent. 
Throughout the whole extract, he treats of space as a real entity ! space “ per¬ 
meates,” “conducts,” “ insulates.” Of course, we understand—or, at least, we 
suppose—that, by space, he really means the something (call it x ), whatever it 
may be, which fills and distends space. Still, as we can only think by means of 
words, this loose form of expression is calculated to mislead the reasoner himself, 
as well as his audience. In this case, it appears so to have misled Dr. Faraday ; 
who, overlooking this x, the recognition of which would have given quite 
another turn to his argument, appears to see only atoms, almost inert, and that 
mere ens rationis , empty space, which he proceeds to endow, not only with 
reality, but also with activity. 
But why assume, as tacitly he has assumed, that homogeneous continuity is 
necessary, either for conduction or insulation, or any other manifestation of 
force? Would it not have been more reasonable and more consistent to assume 
that the several atoms exerted their powers—in the one case of attraction, in 
the other of repulsion,—each through a surrounding atmosphere, which atmo¬ 
spheres, collectively, comprise the whole of the interstices of the body ? so that, 
although there is no continuity of atoms, there is yet a continuity of powers. 
The illustration of the black sealing-wax, though plausible, is nothing less 
than a treacherous snare and a pitfall for the understanding. For the particles 
of carbon, which are paralleled with the atoms of body, are, virtually, extin¬ 
guished by the mass of surrounding resinous substance, which thus becomes the 
only operative agency; whereas the corporeal atoms, though surrounded by an 
atmosphere of some kind, remain unimpeded in their activity. In the case of 
the wax, the active portion is the interstitial resin ; in that of body, it is the 
central atoms themselves ; so far, therefore, from being parallel, the two cases 
are exactly opposed, and the inference sought to be drawn falls to the ground. 
The logical vice of this attempted parallelism is, that things are compared which 
are wholly incapable of comparison ; viz., dynamical relations in the atoms with 
merely mechanical relations in the wax. But this is not the first instance in 
which Dr. Faraday, though an able man of science, has been faulty in his 
logic. 
Query? Upon the hypothesis of physical atoms which are not in contact, 
what is that substance (x) which separates them, and which fills up the inter¬ 
mediate spaces? and this, not merely within the pores of each single body, but 
moreover, throughout the vast interspaces that separate the globes ( atomi 
maxima) of our cosmos, and which thus permeates all nature, and interpene¬ 
trates and unifies all creation. When a measure of air is condensed into one- 
tenth of its former volume, what has become of the other nine volumes that 
were interfused with it ? How did they escape from the gas-tight condenser ? 
or, was a vacuum, equal to those nine volumes, produced in nature? Those 
nine volumes must have been something ,• and since they filled a determinate 
portion of space, must have been something material. What, then, is this un¬ 
known x ? This, if determinable, is one of the most interesting and important 
problems that physicists have before them ; and, until we arrive at some con¬ 
clusions respecting it, we are not really in a position to discuss, to much purpose, 
the intimate constitution of body. 
§ 4. The author remarks that a way of escape from such contradictions as 
those adduced by Dr. Faraday is offered us in the conjecture that matter (sub¬ 
stance?) may be continuous, and of a homogeneous texture. I quite fail to per¬ 
ceive, however, in what way this supposition is to help us over the difficulty. 
1 am afraid that, in attempting to reconcile the two theories, he has set himself 
an impossible task ; since the difference between them is not a difference as be- 
