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POLARITY IN MATTER 224 matter is in reality only another form of energy, anct that the impression of solidity is given by the action of a repellent force which is very energetic at short distances. If this were established, we might look forward to the generalization that energy was the one reality of nature, but for the present it is merely a speculation. Matter like energy is indestructible.
Minute as the atoms and molecules are, we must conceive of them not as stationary and indissolubly connected, but rather as little solar systems, in which revolving atoms form the molecule, and revolving molecules form the matter held together as separate systems by their proper energies and motions, until some superior force intruding breaks up the system and sets its components free to form new combinations.
What is the principle which thus forms, unforms, and reforms the various combinations of atomic anđ molecular systems by which the world is built up from its constituent elements ? It is polarity.
If we place an iron bar in contact with the pole of a magnet, the bar becomes itself a magnet with opposite poles to the original one, so that as opposite poles attract, the iron bars adhere to it. Bring a lump of nickel in contact with the further end or free pole of the iron bar, and the nickel also will be magnetized and adhére. Let the lump of nickel be as large as the pole of the iron bar is able to support, and now bring a lump of soft iron near this pole. It will drop the nickel and take the iron. This is exactly similar to those cases of chemical affinity in which a molecule drops'
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