you can't do it; because every minute particle of
it is held together by an enormous force. It may be heated red-hot
and beaten into this shape and that, but still the force hangs on as
tenaciously as the grip of a giant. Now suppose I had some substance,
a drop of which, placed on that piece of iron, would release the force
which holds the particles together--what would happen?"

"I don't know," replied Jennie.

"Oh, yes you do!" cried the Professor impatiently; "but you are like
every other woman--you won't take the trouble to think. What would
happen is this. The force that held the particles together would be
released, and the hammer would fall to powder like that gold you showed
me. The explosion that followed, caused by the sudden release of the
power, would probably wreck this room and extinguish both our lives. You
understand that, do you not?"

"Yes, I think I do."

"Well, here is something you won't understand, and probably won't
believe when you hear it. There is but one force in this world and but
one particle of matter. There is only one element, which is the basis of
everything. All the different shapes and conditions of things that we
see are caused by a mere variation of that force in conjunction with
numbers of that particle. Am I getting beyond your depth?"

"I am afraid you are, Professor."

"Of course; I know what feeble brains the average woman is possessed
of; still, try and keep that in your mind. Now listen to this. I have
discovered how to disunite that force and that particle. I can, with
a touch, fling loose upon this earth a giant whose strength is
irresistible and immeasurable."

"Then why object to making your discovery public?"

"In the first place, because there are still a thousand things and more
to be learned along such a line of investigation. The moment a man
announces his discoveries, he is first ridiculed, then, when the truth
of what he affirms is proven, there rise in every part of the world
other men who say that they knew all about it ten years ago, and will
prove it too--at least, far enough to delude a gullible world; in the
second because I am a humane man, I hesitate to spread broadcast a
knowledge that would enable any fool to destroy the universe. Then there
is a third reason. There is another who, I believe, has discovered how
to make this force loosen its grip on the particle--that is Keely, of
Philadelphia, in the United States--"

"What! You don't mean the