As the words "ultimate physical atom" must frequently occur, it is necessary to state what we mean by the phrase. Any gaseous chemical atom may be dissociated into less complicated bodies; these, again, into still less complicated; these, again, into yet still less complicated. These will be dealt with presently. After the third dissociation but one more is possible; the fourth dissociation gives the ultimate physical atom.[[3]] This may vanish from the physical plane, but it can undergo no further dissociation on it. In this ultimate state of physical matter two types of atoms have been observed; they are alike in everything save the direction of their whorls and of the force which pours through them. In the one case force pours in from the "outside," from fourth-dimensional space,[[4]] and passing through the atom, pours into the physical world. In the second, it pours in from the physical world, and out through the atom into the "outside" again,[[4]] i.e., vanishes from the physical world. The one is like a spring, from which water bubbles out; the other is like a hole, into which water disappears. We call the atoms from which force comes out positive or male; those through which it disappears, negative or female. All atoms, so far as observed, are of one or other of these two forms. (Plate II.)
It will be seen that the atom is a sphere, slightly flattened, and there is a depression at the point where the force flows in, causing a heart-like form. Each atom is surrounded by a field, formed of the atoms of the four higher planes, which surround and interpenetrate it.
The atom can scarcely be said to be a "thing," though it is the material out of which all things physical are composed. It is formed by the flow of the life-force[[5]] and vanishes with its ebb. When this force arises in "space"[[6]]—the apparent void which must be filled with substance of some kind, of inconceivable tenuity—atoms appear; if this be artificially stopped for a single atom, the atom disappears; there is nothing left. Presumably, were that flow checked but for an instant, the whole physical world would vanish, as a cloud melts away in the empyrean. It is only the persistence of that flow[[7]] which maintains the physical basis of the universe.[[8]]
In order to examine the construction of the atom, a space is artificially made[[9]]; then, if an opening be made in the wall thus constructed, the surrounding force flows in, and three whorls immediately appear, surrounding the "hole" with their triple spiral of two and a half coils, and returning to their origin by a spiral within the atom; these are at once followed by seven finer whorls, which following the spiral of the first three on the outer surface, and returning to their origin by a spiral within that, flowing in the opposite direction—form a caduceus with the first three. Each of the three coarser whorls, flattened out, makes a closed circle; each of the seven finer ones, similarly flattened out, makes a closed circle. The forces which flow in them, again, come from "outside," from a fourth-dimensional space.[[10]] Each of the finer whorls is formed of seven yet finer ones, set successively at right angles to each other, each finer than its predecessor; these we call spirillæ.[[11]]
It will be understood from the foregoing, that the atom cannot be said to have a wall of its own, unless these whorls of force can be so designated; its "wall" is the pressed back "space." As said in 1895, of the chemical atom, the force "clears itself a space, pressing back the undifferentiated matter of the plane, and making to itself a whirling wall of this matter." The wall belongs to space, not to the atom.
In the three whorls flow currents of different electricities; the seven vibrate in response to etheric waves of all kinds—to sound, light, heat, etc.; they show the seven colours of the spectrum; give out the seven sounds of the natural scale; respond in a variety of ways to physical vibration—flashing, singing, pulsing bodies, they move incessantly, inconceivably beautiful and brilliant.[[12]]
The atom has—as observed so far—three proper motions, i.e., motions of its own, independent of any imposed upon it from outside. It turns incessantly upon its own axis, spinning like a top; it describes a small circle with its axis, as though the axis of the spinning top moved in a small circle; it has a regular pulsation, a contraction and expansion, like the pulsation of the heart. When a force is brought to bear upon it, it dances up and down, flings itself wildly from side to side, performs the most astonishing and rapid gyrations, but the three fundamental motions incessantly persist. If it be made to vibrate, as a whole, at the rate which gives any one of the seven colors, the whorl belonging to that color glows out brilliantly.
An electric current brought to bear upon the atoms checks their proper motions, i.e., renders them slower; the atoms exposed to it arrange themselves in parallel lines, and in each line the heart-shaped depression receives the flow, which passes out through the apex into the depression of the next, and so on. The atoms always set themselves to the current. The well-known division of diamagnetic and paramagnetic depends generally on this fact, or on an analogous action on molecules, as may be seen in the accompanying diagrams.[[13]]
Two atoms, positive and negative, brought near to each other, attract each other, and then commence to revolve round each other, forming a relatively stable duality; such a molecule is neutral. Combinations of three or more atoms are positive, negative or neutral, according to the internal molecular arrangement; the neutral are relatively stable, the positive and negative are continually in search of their respective opposites, with a view to establishing a relatively permanent union.