Appendix - 8. (535).
A difference of density is difficult to conceive in a perfectly solid continuum. I prescind from it totally as something unproved and improbable, and simply note that, even granted a different density in the element, there would be no extrasubjective phenomenon of life unless there were some kind of attraction.
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We could however advance another hypothesis, and suppose that in every first element there is a kind of centre corresponding to Boscovich's simple points. From this centre, there emanates attraction or retention which reveals its effect in a given proportion, for example, in inverse proportion to the square of the distances. It is true that in this case the element's density and solidity would increase in proportion to the proximity of its matter to the centre. But equally, if we supposed the elements to be of a fixed, extremely small size, they would be so dense and solid throughout that they could not be broken apart by any external force; they would be true atoms (physically indivisible). It is easy to understand the necessity of this effect when we consider that at the shortest distances attraction increases in an unimaginable progression. Against this progression, mechanical forces are practically infinitesimal, and can be applied only externally to an extremely minute part, because of the smallness and lightness of the atom itself. Similarly, physical and chemical forces are practically powerless, if we suppose that they all act (as I believe) according to the law which governs attraction in general, or present the outward appearance of acting in this way. In so far as these attracting forces have to be applied externally to the atom, the body which is applied to the atom is more distant from the centre of attraction than the matter of the atom is. The body therefore necessarily exercises less force on the matter than does the centre of the atom, which we suppose to be the centre of attraction. Furthermore, the attraction, if supposed from a distance (which is contrary to the way we perceive), can exercise on the atom only the minimum force sufficient for attracting the atom itself. Consequently, the whole atom, whose weight is as minute as its size, could be drawn but never smashed by these forces. |
Nevertheless the density or supposed centre of attraction inside the atom seems suitable for explaining how atoms joined by contact, which I suppose possible, do not join in such a way that they become perfectly solid and inseparable.
Indeed, if the density of matter did not vary inside the atom, it would be difficult to explain how atoms, even when in contact, remain distinct and separable, without denying the contact (as some have done) and without having recourse to a repulsive force (which in my opinion must be derivative). But granted that the density increases in the atom in proportion to the proximity of the matter to the centre of attraction, we immediately understand how the internal matter cannot be further rarefied, precisely because, although still continuous and impenetrable, it is at its most rarefied near the surfaces in contact with the atoms. Hence, the matter cannot become denser because it is always held more strongly by the dense matter nearest the centre of the two atoms which are in contact.
We must leave the mathematicians to calculate the accuracy of these postulates and determine how small the primitive elements must be if they are to remain perfectly hard, that is, indivisible and clearly distinct from each other, even when in real contact.
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