Nucleus

“ Up to the point we have reached, then, we see what the new view of Matter is. Every atom of matter, of whatever kind throughout the whole universe, is built up of electrons in conjunction with a nucleus. ”

“ The electron and its nucleus are particles of electricity. All Matter, therefore, is nothing but a manifestation of electricity. The atoms of matter, as we saw, combine and form molecules. Atoms and molecules are the bricks out of which nature has built up everything; ourselves, the earth, the stars, the whole universe. ”

“ As we saw in Chapter I, an atom is a kind of solar system, consisting of a nucleus which has electrons revolving round it. We shall see later that it is the nature of the nucleus that characterizes an element, and that two atoms of the same element may differ as to the number of their electrons and the shapes of their orbits. ”

“ An atom, and therefore all matter, which is made up of atoms, is engaged in a constant revolution around the nucleus, in the same way in which our solar system revolves around our sun, and our sun around the black hole in the center of the galaxy. This revolving motion is the basis for the formation of all matter that we know of, both in its smallest form, like the atom, or its larger forms, like the galaxy. ”

“ The first stage in the history of these fiery particles is the formation among them, in some unaccountable way, of [Pg 4] nuclei, or centres of aggregation, like the bright points that are now visible in some of the nebulæ of the heavens. As soon as these centres are formed, gravity, one of the original principles of matter, begins to act, and the atoms in all the neighbouring parts of space are attracted towards the nucleus and heaped upon it. ”

“ The essential part about us is the nucleus, which sometimes appears as a bright stellar point, and sometimes rather gives the notion of a planetary disc, seen through a nebulous haze. What is generally called our head, is simply this nebulous haze which surrounds the nucleus; the train of illuminated vapour which is often, though by no means always, attached to the head, is usually termed by you the tail, though, allow me to observe, rather improperly, since this appendage often precedes us in our motions. ”

“ This appearance of concentric arrangement around a nucleus is, nevertheless, delusive, being produced by the intersection of beds bent into a convex shape; and that which seems the nucleus being, in fact, the innermost bed of the series, which has become partially visible by the removal of the protuberant portions of the outer layers. ”

“ Each of the ninety-two elements which we believe constitute the ninety-two different forms of simple matter has an atom with its own peculiar type of nucleus, which nucleus differs from those of the others only in the amount of positive electricity it contains. ”

“ Now we know something about the names of the important kinds of atoms and can take up again the question of how they are formed by protons and electrons. No matter what kind of atom we are dealing with we always have a nucleus or center and some electrons playing around that nucleus like tiny planets. The only differences between one kind of atom and any other kind are differences in the nucleus and differences in the number and arrangement of the planetary electrons which are playing about the nucleus. ”

“ It is the heavenly body conceived in the act of becoming, but unto which polarization is wanting; it cannot therefore concentrate itself, but again dissolves when the nucleus is gone. Every heavenly body is a mass of æther in the world-space, which is materialized by light, and separated out of its indifference into difference, into more solid masses. Finally, the tail becomes dense æther, a nucleus. ”

“ The atoms below us are revolving at an incredible speed. Each revolution about the atomic nucleus represents a year. A minute in our plane is equal to millions within the atom. And so it is in the upper plane. It is a question of relativity. I was outside our Universe a few minutes. ”

“ Nevertheless, it is a fact, and a comprehension of it will enable you to adjust yourself to other facts, one of which is that the Infinite Intelligent Energy compels each and every atom to assume its orderly relation to all other atoms. Further, that indeed, atoms are embryotic universes, each atom containing within itself all the properties which anywhere exist, and any one atom may [Pg 81] form the nucleus about which other atoms may congregate, until a world is in process of formation. ”

“ The nucleus is black, of a very irregular shape, and is subject to great and sudden changes, both in form and size. Spots have sometimes seemed to burst asunder, and to project fragments in different directions. ”

“ The conclusion, then, naturally is that there are both gas and small masses of matter, each with an orbit of its own nearly parallel to those of all the others, and that they afford some attraction to hold the mass of intermingled and confluent gas together. Our best judgment, then, is that the nucleus is composed of separate bodies, or matter in a liquid condition, capable of being vaporized by the heat of the sun, and driven off, Page 133 as steam from a locomotive, into a tail. ”

“ We can imagine the atomic nucleus as composed of a large number of primates of differing species, and perhaps with many primates of the same species, the whole association being such as to favour stability. An example of such an association is afforded by the association of a positive nucleus with negative electrons to obtain a neutral atom. ”

“ To make room for these we have to remember that the atomic nucleus has remained entirely undefined and beyond our problem; so that what may occur, say when two molecules come into close relations, is outside physical science—not, however, altogether outside, for we know that when the vital nexus in any portion of matter is dissolved, the atoms will remain, in their number, and their atmospheres, and all inorganic relations, as they were before vitality supervened. ”

“ Yet all the knowledge on earth will give me nothing to assure me that this world is mine. You describe it to me and you teach me to classify it. You enumerate its laws and in my thirst for knowledge I admit that they are true. You take apart its mechanism and my hope increases. At the final stage you teach me that this wondrous and multicolored universe can be reduced to the atom and that the atom itself can be reduced to the electron. All this is good and I wait for you to continue. But you tell me of an invisible planetary system in which electrons gravitate around a nucleus. ”

“ On the Structure of the Female Flower in Cycadeæ and Coniferæ.
That the apex of the nucleus is the point of the ovulum where impregnation takes place, is at least highly probable, both from the constancy in the appearance of the embryo at that point, and from the very general inversion of the nucleus; for by this inversion its apex is brought nearly, or absolutely, into contact with that part of the parietes of the ovarium, by which the influence of the pollen may be supposed to be communicated. ”

“ We may consider the motion of the atom of hydrogen in the atom itself, if it is a compound body as some chemists suppose; then we may consider it in the molecule, then in the tide, then in the earth in rotation, then in the earth-moon body on an axis within the earth, then in the earth in revolution in the solar system, and then in the galaxy with the solar system, and if there be a system of galaxies we may consider it in such body. ”

“ It shows us atoms of hydrogen or of sodium pulsating rhythmically with like oscillations in star-cloud or sun-cloud, and in London or Berlin. It exhibits to our eyes or to our scientific imagination a picture of the universe as a single whole, a picture of its evolution as a continuous process—one type of matter diffused throughout space; one gravitative attraction binding it together firmly in all parts; one multiform energy quivering through its molecules or traversing its ether, in many disguises of light, and heat, and sound, and electricity. ”

“ They move about among each other, and within each molecule the atoms are in motion. Each atom, again, has its own internal movement. But, if the world were made up of atoms and molecules alone, we should never know of their existence; and, to explain the phenomena of the universe, we must recognize the presence of a continuous universal medium penetrating all space and all bodies. This medium, which we call the luminiferous ether, or simply the ether, serves to keep up the connection between atoms or molecules. ”

“ Or will you choose the universe of the atom, the infinity of the material world followed the other way, so to speak? Big as is the universe in relation to our world, and big as is our world in relation to the insect that crawls on it, the insect is bigger yet in relation to the molecules which compose its body; and these in turn are millions of millions of times bigger than the atoms which compose them; and then, behold, in the atom there are millions of millions of electrons—tiny particles of electric energy! ”

“ At the big end the spheres of the planets rotating on their axes and revolving round the sun; and at the little end the spheres of the atoms consisting of particles which, modern science tells us, in like manner rotate round a common center at distances which are astronomical as compared with their own mass. Thus the two ultimate units of physical manifestation, the atom and the planet, both follow the same law of self-sustained motion which we have found that, on a priori grounds, they ought in order to express the primary activity of Spirit. ”

“ Another example: the atom or final particle of matter is, like the earth itself, a magnet with positive and negative poles. The entire phenomenal world is under the inexorable sway of polarity; no law of physics, chemistry, or any other science is ever found free from inherent opposite or contrasted principles. ”

“ We are speaking of atoms as the ultimate constituents of matter, and yet we are compelled, in describing their gravitating energy, to speak of the quantity of matter contained in each atom,—in other words, we speak in the same breath of an atom as not admitting of being divided or diminished, and of its containing matter by quantity, that is, by more or less. ”

“ Thus the exquisitely beautiful and symmetrical phenomena and laws of polarisation, and of crystalline and other effects, may be looked upon as indications of the delicacy and subtlety of the mechanism by which man, through his visual organs, is put in [110] communication with the external world; is made acquainted with the forms and qualities of objects in the most remote regions of space; and is enabled, in some measure, to determine his position and relation in a universe in which he is but an atom. ”

“ By its means we imagine every atom in the universe to be bound to every other atom by the force of gravitation and often by the force of magnetic and electric action, and we conceive that it alone conveys the vibratory motion of each atom or molecule out into space to be ever lost in endless radiation, passing out into infinite space or absorbed by some other atoms which happen to be in its path. ”

“ And thus, whether we contemplate the infinitely small or the infinitely grand, in every case comes back upon us the wide induction, that the action of matter in atom, in molecule, or in mass, is ever at a distance! Of actual contact there is probably no instance afforded in nature, excepting in the intimate substance of the ultimate atom. ”

“ Let us now adopt a more philosophical phraseology:—Every atom, of every body, attracts every other atom, both of its own and of every other body, with a force which varies inversely as the squares of the distances between the attracting and attracted atom.—Here, indeed, a flood of suggestion bursts upon the mind. ”

“ In the scientific picture of molecules constituting a physical body, of atoms constituting the molecules, of electrons, protons, etc., constituting the atoms, all separated by spaces far exceeding the size of the elementary particles themselves, we find reflected, in a form comprehensible to the onlooker-consciousness, the fact that matter, even in the solid state, is kept in spatial extension by a field of force relating it to the cosmic periphery. ”

“ Bruno—But relatively the atom is as great as the universe. You have been told that an atom is a universe in embryo, for in it are all possible qualities, and in it are all the activities of Infinite Intelligent Energy. So were you no greater than an atom, you yet would be a necessary factor of Infinity. ”

“ We know that those atoms obey certain conditions which appear to be dependent upon the influences of motion, gravitation, heat, light, electricity, and chemical force. These powers are only known to us by their effects; we only detect their action by their operations upon matter; and although we regard the several phenomena which we have discovered, as the manifestations of different principles, it is possible they may be but modifications of some one universal power, of which these are but a few of its modes of action. ”

“ So that gathering up those chief properties of the earth to which I have already referred, and applying them to an aetherial atom, or any other atom if necessary, we arrive at the conclusion that an atom must be spherical in shape, must possess rotation, and must have an orbit, must possess polarity, and also be subject to the universal Law of Gravitation. ”