Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/245



Atomicity, considered as the property possessed by a substance for combining with another in definite proportion, or as the number of bonds possessed by a substance for combining with another in definite proportion, or as the number of bonds possessed by a substance, is attraction or chemical affinity operating in particular in the atom. Atomicity is but the way that chemical affinity acts in the atom. As the substance and form of the atom, as well as the force of atomicity which it exerts, must be affected to a greater or less extent by many forces in nature, as those of electricity, magnetism, the atomicity of other substances, and the like, the force of atomicity variously appears; although attraction, from which it is derived, is relatively uniform. It is possible for atomicity to be such because the aura or gravity imbues the atom of matter grosser than itself with force so that the atom acts as of itself on its own plane, and variously manifests the appropriated powers.

Capillarity, that force by which fluids are elevated or depressed upon the immersion of a solid, is not a distinct force, but ordinary attrac-