Article selection by John Tyndall | Note by H.P.B.
. . . The union of bodies in fixed and multiple proportions constitutes the basis of modern atomic theory. The same compound retains for ever, the same elements, in an unalterable ratio. We cannot produce pure water containing one part, by weight, of hydrogen and nine of oxygen; nor can we produce it when the ratio is one to ten; but we can produce it from the ratio of one to eight, and from no other. So also when water is decomposed by the electric current, the proportion, as regards volumes, is as fixed as in the case of weights. Two volumes of hydrogen and one of oxygen invariably go to the formation of water. Number and harmony, as in the Pythagorean system, are everywhere dominant in this under-world.1 . . .
1. This paragraph would be in its right place in the best text on Occult Doctrine. The latter is based entirely upon numbers, harmony, and correspondences or affinities.—Ed. [H.P.B.]