Conception of the Simple, Binary, Tertiary, and Quaternary Atoms.
"Material substances are by Kanāda considered to be primarily atoms; and secondarily, aggegates. He maintains the eternity of atoms; and their existence and aggregation are explained as follows:
"The mote, which is seen in a sunbeam, is the smallest perceptible quantity. Being a substance and an effect, it must be composed of what is less than itself; and this likewise is a substance and an effect; for the component part of a substance that has magnitude must be an effect. This again must be composed of what is smaller; and that smaller thing is an atom. It is simple and uncomposed; else the series would be endless: and, were it pursued indefinitely, there would be no difference of magnitude between a mustard seed
water moist and cold, earth cold and dry, and fire dry and warm. The differences in the material world were, therefore, to be ascribed to the properties inherent in matter. **** "Aristotle considered that his four elements were insufiicient in themselves to explain the phenomena of nature; he therefore assumed a fifth one, termed ou'vía, which he imagined to possess
