in Philosophy, a particle of matter, so minute as to admit of no division. Atoms are the minima nature,

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1 Brewer's Journal (new series), i. 34. and are conceived to be the first principles or component parts of all physical magnitude.

ATOMIC PHILosophy, or the doctrine of atoms, a system which, from the hypothesis that atoms are endowed with gravity and motion, accounted for the origin and formation of all things. This philosophy was first broached by Democritus, and afterwards cultivated and improved by Epicurus, whence it is denominated the Epicurean Philosophy.