This failure surprises no one,
for we get used to everything--even to defeat.
When we come to deal with a new problem we have really no right to
show ourselves more exacting; yet there are found persons who refuse
to admit the hypothesis of the atomic disaggregation of radium because
they cannot have set before them a detailed plan of that complex whole
known to us as an atom.
The most natural idea is perhaps the one suggested by comparison with
those astronomical phenomena where our observation most readily allows
us to comprehend the laws of motion. It corresponds likewise to the
tendency ever present in the mind of man, to compare the infinitely
small with the infinitely great. The atom may be regarded as a sort of
solar system in which electrons in considerable numbers gravitate
round the sun formed by the positive ion. It may happen that certain
of these electrons are no longer retained in their orbit by the
electric attraction of the rest of the atom, and may be projected from
it like a small planet or comet which escapes towards the stellar
spaces.
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