Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

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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 restitu¬
tion 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, circum¬
stances 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 construc¬
tion 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 pro¬
fessed measures a conformity to the national standard.
There are thus three kinds of usefulness in manufactured
articles—cheapness, serviceableness, and quantitative accu¬
racy. 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.
ATOOI, one of the larger Sandwich Islands, in the
South 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,
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