Properties of Matter - The Spirit's Book

29. Is density an essential attribute of matter?

"Yes, of matter as understood by you, but not of matter considered as the universal fluid. The

ethereal and subtle matter which forms this fluid is imponderable for you, and yet it is none

the less the principle of your ponderable matter."

Density is a relative property. Beyond the sphere of attraction of the various globes of the universe, there is no such thing as "weight," just as there Is neither "up" nor "down."

30. Is matter formed of one element or of several elements?

"Of one primitive element. The bodies which you regard as simple are not really elementary;

they are transformations of the primitive matter."

31. Whence come the different properties of matter?

"From the modifications undergone by the elementary molecules, as the result of their union and of the action of certain conditions."

32. According to this view of the subject, savours, odours, colours, sounds, the poisonous or salutary qualities of bodies, are only the result of modifications of one and the same primitive substance?

"Yes, undoubtedly; and that only exist in virtue of the disposition of the organs destined to

perceive them."

This principle Is proved by the fact that the qualities of bodies are not perceived by all persons In the same manner. The same thing appears agreeable to the taste of one person, and disagreeable to that of another. what appears blue to one person appears red to another. That which is a poison for some, is wholesome for others.

33. Is the same elementary matter susceptible of undergoing all possible modifications and of

acquiring all possible qualities.'

"Yes; and it is, this fact which is implied in the saying that everything is in everything."

Oxygen, hydrogen, azote, carbon, and all the other bodies which we regard as simple, are only modifications of one primitive substance. But the impossibility, in which we have hitherto found ourselves, of arriving at this primitive matter otherwise than as an intellectual deduction, causes these bodies to appear to us to be really elementary and we may, therefore, without Impropriety, continue for the present to regard them as such.

- Does not this theory appear to bear out the opinion of those who admit only two essential

properties in matter, viz., force and movement, and who regard all the other Properties of

matter as being merely secondary effects of these, varying according to the intensity of the

force and the direction of the movement?

"That opinion is correct. But you must also add, according to the mode of molecular

arrangement; as you see exemplified, for instance, in an opaque body, that may become

transparent, and vice versa."

34. Have the molecules of matter a determinate form?'

"Those molecules undoubtedly have a form, but one which is not appreciable by your

organs."

- Is that form constant or variable?

"Constant for the primitive elementary molecules, but variable for the secondary molecules, which are themselves only agglomerations of the primary ones; for what you term a molecule is still very far from being the elementary molecule.

From The Spirit's Book - Chapter II - Properties of Matter - Ed Federação Espírita Brasileira FEB