ATOM

, a particle of matter indivisible on account of its solidity, hardness, and impenetrability; which preclude all division, and leave no vacancy for the admission of any foreign force to separate or disunite its parts. As atoms are the sirst matter, it is necessary they should be indissolvable, that they may be incorruptible. Newton adds, it is also required that they be immutable, that the world may continue in the same state, and bodies be of the same nature now as formerly.