Page:Truth and Error (1898).djvu/22

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TRUTH AND ERROR

substance, which is called matter. Matter, then, is the ultimate substance into which all other substances which constitute the bodies of the universe are resolved; and matter may be of one primordial kind, or it may be of seventy kinds, more or less.

Bodies are resolved into more and more simple and homogeneous substances, and it is the theory of some chemists that ultimate analysis will resolve them into one simple kind, so that every particle will be like every other particle in all its properties. Matter, then, is the ultimate kind of particle into which all bodies may be analyzed, and different kinds of matter are different aggregations of the one kind. The different kinds of matter made different by different aggregation are different substances, and the different substances are aggregations of matter by incorporation.

An army is composed of men, but there are platoons, companies, battalions, regiments, divisions, and corps in the army. So it is organized or incorporated into a hierarchy of units. The platoon is one as a platoon, composed of a plurality of men; the company is one as a company but a plurality of platoons; the battalion is one as a battalion but a plurality of companies; the regiment is one as a regiment but a plurality of battalions; the brigade is one as a brigade but a plurality of regiments; the division is one as a division but a plurality of brigades; the corps is one as a corps but a plurality of divisions. Now we understand the fundamental property of numbers as many in one. The platoon differs in the property of number from the individual; the company differs in the property of number from the platoon, and the battalion differs in the property of number