Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/61

Rh values. That which determines the period of any particular kind of vibration is the relation which subsists between the corresponding type of displacement and the force of restitution thereby called into play, a relation involving constants of space and time as well as of mass.

It is the equality of these space- and time-constants for all molecules of the same kind which we have next to consider. We have seen that the very different circumstances in which different molecules of the same kind have been placed have not, even in the course of many ages, produced any appreciable difference in the values of these constants. If, then, the various processes of nature to which these molecules have been subjected since the world began have not been able in all that time to produce any appreciable difference between the constants of one mole cule and those of another, we are forced to conclude that it is not to the operation of any of these processes that the uniformity of the constants is due.

The formation of the molecule is therefore an event not belonging to that order of nature under which we live. It is an operation of a kind which is not, so far as we are aware, going on on earth or in the sun or the stars, either now or since these bodies began to be formed. It must be referred to the epoch, not of the formation of the earth or of the solar system, but of the establishment of the existing order of nature, and till not only these worlds and systems, but the very order of nature itself is dissolved, we have no reason to expect the occurrence of any operation of a similar kind.

In the present state of science, therefore, we have strong reasons for believing that in a molecule, or if not in a molecule, in one of its component atoms, we have something which has existed either from eternity or at least from times anterior to the existing order of nature. But besides this atom, there are immense numbers of other atoms of the same kind, and the constants of each of these atoms are incapable of adjustment by any process now in action. Each is physically independent of all the others.

Whether or not the conception of a multitude of beings existing from all eternity is in itself self-contradictory, the conception becomes palpably absurd when we attribute a relation of quantitative equality to all these beings. We are then forced to look beyond them to some common cause or common origin to explain why this singular relation of equality exists, rather than any one of the infinite number of possible relations of inequality.

Science is incompetent to reason upon the creation of matter itself out of nothing. We have reached the utmost limit of our thinking faculties when we have admitted that, because matter cannot be eternal and self-existent, it must have been created. It is only when we contemplate not matter in itself, but the form in which it actually exists, that our mind finds something on which it can lay hold.

That matter, as such, should have certain fundamental properties, that it should have a continuous existence in space and time, that all action should be between two portions of matter, and so on, are truths which may, for aught we know, be of the kind which metaphysicians call necessary. We may use our knowledge of such truths for purposes of deduction, but we have no data for speculating on their origin.

But the equality of the constants of the molecules is a fact of a very different order. It arises from a particular distribution of matter, a collocation, to use the expression of Dr Chalmers, of things which we have no difficulty in imagining to have been arranged otherwise. But many of the ordinary instances of collocation are adjustments of constants, which are not only arbitrary in their own nature, but in which variations actually occur ; and when it is pointed out that these adjustments are beneficial to living beings, and are therefore instances of benevolent design, it is replied that those variations which are not conducive to the growth and multiplication of living beings tend to their destruction, and to the removal thereby of the evidence of any adjustment not beneficial.

The constitution of an atom, however, is such as to render it, so far as we can judge, independent of all the dangers arising from the struggle for existence. Plausible reasons may, no doubt, be assigned for believing that if the constants had varied from atom to atom through any sensible range, the bodies formed by aggregates of such atoms would not have been so well fitted for the construction of the world as the bodies which actually exist. But as we have no experience of bodies formed of such variable atoms this must remain a bare conjecture.

Atoms have been compared by Sir J. Herschel to manufactured articles, on account of their uniformity. The uniformity of manufactured articles may be traced to very different motives on the part of the manufacturer. In certain cases it is found to be less expensive as regards trouble, as well as cost, to make a great many objects exactly alike than to adapt each to its special requirements. Thus, shoes for soldiers are made in large numbers without any designed adaptation to the feet of particular men. In another class of cases the uniformity is intentional, and is designed to make the manufactured article more valuable.

Thus, Whitworth's bolts are made in a certain number of sizes, so that if one bolt is lost, another may be got at once, and accurately fitted to its place. The identity of the arrange ment of the words in the different copies of a document or book is a matter of great practical importance, and it is more perfectly secured by the process of printing than by that of manuscript copying.

In a third class not a part only but the whole of the value of the object arises from its exact conformity to a given standard.

Weights and measures belong to this class, and the existence of many well-adjusted material standards of weight and measure in any country furnishes evidence of the existence of a system of law regulating the transactions of the inhabitants, and enjoining in all professed measures a conformity to the national standard.

There are thus three kinds of usefulness in manufactured articles cheapness, serviceableness, and quantitative accuracy. Which of these was present to the mind of Sir J. Herschel we cannot now positively affirm, but it was at least as likely to have been the last as the first, though it seems more probable that he meant to assert that a number of exactly similar things cannot be each of them eternal and self-existent, and must therefore have been made, and that he used the phrase " manufactured article " to suggest the idea of their being made in great numbers. ( J. C. M. )

 ATOOI, one of the larger Sandwich Islands, in the North Pacific Ocean. Towards the N.E. and N.W. the country is rugged and broken, but to the southward it is more level. The hills rise from the sea with a gentle acclivity, and, at a little distance back, are covered with wood; the central peaks attain an elevation of 7000 feet. The chief ports are Waimea and Hanalei. The island was one of the stations chosen for the observation of the transit of Venus in 1874. It is nearly 40 miles in length, and contains about 10,000 inhabitants. Long. 159° 40′ W., lat. 21° 57′ N.

 ATRATO, a river of Colombia, South America, which, 