of
simplicity--in a word, the utmost possible multiplicity of _relation_
out of the emphatically irrelative _One_. Undoubtedly, therefore, we
_should_ be warranted in assuming all that has been mentioned, but for
the reflection, first, that supererogation is not presumable of any
Divine Act; and, secondly, that the object supposed in view, appears as
feasible when some of the conditions in question are dispensed with, in
the beginning, as when all are understood immediately to exist. I mean
to say that some are involved in the rest, or so instantaneous a
consequence of them as to make the distinction inappreciable. Difference
of _size_, for example, will at once be brought about through the
tendency of one atom to a second, in preference to a third, on account
of particular inequidistance; which is to be comprehended as _particular
inequidistances between centres of quantity, in neighboring atoms of
different form_--a matter not at all interfering with the
generally-equable distribution of the atoms. Difference of _kind_, too,
is easily conceived to be merely a result of differences in size and
form, taken more or less conjointly:--in fact, since the _Unity_ of the
Particle Proper implies absolute homogeneity, we cannot imagine the
atoms, at their diffusion, differing in kind, without imagining, at the
same time, a special exercise of the Divine Will, at the emission of
each atom, for the purpose of effecting, in each, a change of its
essential nature:--so fantastic an idea is the less to be indulged, as
the object proposed is seen to be thoroughly attainable without such
minute and elaborate interposition. We perceive, therefore, upon the
whole, that it would be supererogatory, and consequently
unphilosophical, to predicate of the atoms, in view of their purposes,
any thing more than _difference of form_ at their dispersion, with
particular inequidistance after it--all other differences arising at
once out of these, in the very first processes of mass-constitution:--We
thus establish the Universe on a purely _geometrical_ basis. Of course,
it is by no means necessary to assume absolute difference, even of form,
among _all_ the atoms irradiated--any more than absolute particular
inequidistance of each from each. We are required to conceive merely
that no _neighboring_ atoms are of similar form--no atoms which can ever
approximate, until their inevitable reunition at the end.

Although the immediate and perpetual _tende