Now each atom is a storehouse of energy, representing the force primitively applied to reduce some thousands of free electrons to the bondage of a harmoniously working system. Its disruption is accompanied by the dissipation of the energy previously accumulated in it; and that atomic systems are not calculated for indefinite endurance is one of the most surprising of modern discoveries. The secret of their original construction is, none the less, impenetrable. That they are composed of protyle--that their clustering members are corpuscles moving under strong mechanical control--is more than probable. And the law of order adumbrated by what are called the 'periodic' relations of the chemical elements shows that their concourse was very far from being fortuitous. But beyond this point there is no holding-ground for distinct thought. We are ignorant, too, whether the process of building matter out of protyle is at present going on, or was completed once for all in the abysmal fore-time, decay being now definitive. Nor is it likely that we shall ever succeed in capturing with recognition a brand-new atom freshly minted for cosmical circulation. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 52: First introduced by Basilius Valentinus. See Fowler's edition of the _Novum Organum_, p. 576, note.] [Footnote 53: Thus recurring, as Mr. Fowler remarked (_loc. cit._), to Geber's earlier view.] [Footnote 54: _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xlvi., p. 426.] [Footnote 55: Crookes, _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. clxx., p. 163.] [Footnote 56: J. J. Thomson, _The Discharge of Electricity through Gases_, p. 195; _Philosophical Magazine_, vol. xliv., p. 311.] [Footnote 57: _Science_, June 26, 1903.] [Footnote 58: _Proceedings of the Chemical Society_, March 2, 1888.] [Footnote 59: _Times_, March 30, 1888.] [Footnote 60: _Encyclopædia Britannica_, article 'Atom.'] [Footnote 61: Fleming, _Proceedings Royal Institution_, vol. xvii., p. 169.] CHAPTER X UNIVERSAL FORCES We find it equally impossible to conceive of matter without force, as of force without matter. The two modes of action, or of being, are inseparable. Yet our minds strongly distinguish between them; they impart a dual aspect to the world. Phenomena are not simple manifestations of disembodied energy, if such a thing could be; they have a substantial basis which, nevertheless, eludes apprehension, and seems to slip away into nothingness if we try to empty it of its immaterial contents. Nor do these energize in the void. They and the bodies they animate are knowable only in combination, and exist, to our apprehension, only on the condition of mutual dependence. All we can do towards discriminating them is to fix our attention predominantly on one or the other side of things, and so facilitate thought by drawing ideal lines of demarcation.