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598 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Here the great Cliemist gives several cases of the very extraordinarj'-
behaviour of molecules and earths, apparently the same, but which yet,
when examined very closely, were found to exhibit differences which,
however minute, still show that none of them are simple bodies, and
that the 60 or 70 elements accepted in
chemistry can no longer cover
the ground. Their name, apparently, is legion, but as the so-called
"periodic theory" stands in the way of an unlimited multiplication of
elements, Mr. Crookes is obliged to find some means of reconciling the
new discovery with the old theory. "That theory," he says:
Has received such abundant verification that we cannot Hghtly accept any interpretation
of phenomena which fails to be in accordance with it.
But if we suppose
the elements reinforced by a vast number of bodies slightly differing from each
other in their properties, and forming, if I may use the expression, aggregations of
nebulae where we formerly saw, or believed we saw, separate stars, the periodic
arrangement can no longer be definitely grasped. No longer, that is, if we retain
our usual conception of an element. Let us, then, modify this conception. For
"element" read "elementary group"—such elementary groups taking the place of
the old elements in the periodic scheme—and the difficulty falls away.
an element, let us take not an external boundary, but an internal type.
In defining
Let us say,
e.g., the smallest ponderable quantity of yttrium is an assemblage of ultimate atoms
almost infinitely more like each other than they are to the atoms of any other
approximating element.
It does not necessarily follow that the atoms shall all be
absolutely alike among themselves. The atomic weight which we ascribed to
yttrium, therefore, merely represents a mean value around which the actual weights
of the individual atoms of the "element" range within certain limits. But if my
conjecture is tenable, could we separate atom from atom, we should find them
varying within narrow limits on each side of the mean. The very process of
fractionation implies the existence of such differences in certain bodies.
Thus fact and truth have once more forced the hand of "exact"
Science, and compelled it to enlarge its views and change its terms,
which, masking the multitude, reduced them to one body—like the
Septenary Elohim and their hosts transformed by the materialistic
religionists into one Jehovah. Replace the chemical terms "molecule,"
"atom," "particle," etc., by the words "Hosts," "Monads,"
"Devas," etc., and one might think the genesis of Gods, the primeval
evolution of manvantaric intelligeit Forces, was being described. But
the learned lecturer adds to his descriptive remarks something still
more suggestive; whether consciously or unconsciously, who knoweth
For he says
Until lately such bodies passed muster as elements. They had definite properties,
chemical and physical ; they had recognized atomic weights. If we take a