5 He says: “What do we know of the atom apart from its force? You
imagine a nucleus which may be called _a_, and surround it by forces
which may be called _m_: to my mind the _a_, or nucleus, vanishes,
and the substance consists in the powers of _m_. And, indeed, what
notion can we form of the nucleus independent of its powers? What
thought remains on which to hang the imagination of an _a_
independent of the acknowledged forces?”
We answer that there remains the _inertia_, the _passivity_, and the
_local position_, which are not the property of the _m_, but of the
_a_. The _a_, even according to Faraday, is the real centre of a
sphere, and therefore it cannot vanish while the sphere exists,
except inasmuch as it must be conceived without bulk, according to
the theory of simple elements which he adopts.