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THE LAWS OF NATURE
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amount of any given force, as heat, might vary, but not the total amount of energy. As 20 may be made up of 20 units, or of 10 twos, or of 5 fours, or of 12+8, and so on, but the total remains as 20,. so with the varying forms and the total amount. . With regard to matter, again, similar statements were made ; it was indestructible, and hence remained ever the same in amount; some, like Ludwig Buchner, declared that the chemical elements were indestructible, that "an atom of carbon was ever an atom of carbon," and so on.
On these two ideas science was built up, and they formed the basis of materialism. But now it is realised that chemical elements are dissoluble, and that the atom itself may be a swirl in the ether, or perhaps a mere hole, where ether is not. There may be atoms through which force pours in, others through which it pours out
