diagram. On raising these further, they undergo another disintegration,
losing their limiting walls; the positive body of E 4, on losing its wall,
becomes two bodies, one consisting of the two particles, marked _b_,
distinguishable by the linear arrangement of the contained ultimate atoms,
enclosed in a wall, and the other being the third body enclosed in E 4 and
now set free. The negative body of E 4 similarly, on losing its wall,
becomes two bodies, one consisting of the two particles marked _b'_, and
the second the remaining body, being set free. These free bodies do not
remain on E 3 but pass immediately to E 2, leaving the positive and
negative bodies, each containing two particles, as the representatives of
hydrogen on E 3. On taking these bodies a step higher their wall
disappears, and the internal bodies are set free, those containing the
atoms arranged lineally being positive, and those with the triangular
arrangement being negative. These two forms represent hydrogen on E 2, but
similar bodies of this state of matter are found entering into other
combinations, as may be seen by referring to _f_ on E 2 of nitrogen (N). On
raising these bodies yet one step further, the falling away of the walls
sets the contained atoms free, and we reach the ultimate physical atom, the
matter of E 1. The disintegration of this sets free particles of astral
matter, so that we have reached in this the limit of physical matter. The
Theosophical reader will notice with interest that we can thus observe
seven distinct substates of physical matter, and no more.

The ultimate atom, which is the same in all the observed cases, is an
exceedingly complex body, and only its main characteristics are given in
the diagram. It is composed entirely of spirals, the spiral being in its
turn composed of spirillae, and these again of minuter spirillae. A fairly
accurate drawing is given in Babbitt's "Principles of Light and Colour," p.
102. The illustrations there given of atomic combinations are entirely
wrong and misleading, but if the stove-pipe run through the centre of the
single atom be removed, the picture may be taken as correct, and will give
some idea of the complexity of this fundamental unit of the physical
universe.

Turning to the force side of the atom and its combinations, we observe that
force pours in the heart-shaped depression at the top of the atom, and
issues from the point, and is changed in character by its passage; further,