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were eternally existing, we cannot explain why the atoms should combine at & particular time, in a particular manner and produce a particular thing and then on a different occasion they would produce a different object by combining in & different way altogether. If on the other hand, we hold that the atoms had not their existence from the beginning-less time, how are we to explain their emergence at a particular time? Then again, the question may be asked, how do the atoms produce their effect? Do they exist, when their effects are produced ? If not, then something other than those atoms may as well be held to be the causes of those effects. Again, if we hold that atoms exist when they produce their effects, then those atoms would be producing other things also along with those given effects,- for, otherwise their separate existence at that time becomes inconceivable. Another difficulty in the atomic theory, the nihilists point out, is about the combination of atoms. If in combining with another atom, an atom is identified with or lost in the former, then atomic combination would on no occasion result in the production of a gross thing; if on the other hand, the combining atoms be held to maintain their separate existences in the combination, then in that case, every atom must be
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