An automatic registration of the changing size of a single spherical microbead of a cross-linked polymer was applied for studying the swelling process of the bead by the sorption of vapors and/or liquids. Many representatives of all three basic types of polymeric networks, gel-type, hypercrosslinked, and macroporous, were examined. Only the first two display large volume changes and prove suitable for following the kinetics and extent of swelling by the above dilatometric technique. The results unambiguously prove that swelling of all polymeric networks in liquids is always higher than in corresponding saturated vapors (Schroeder's paradox). The general nature of this phenomenon implies that the absolute activity of any sorbate in its liquid form is always larger than in the form of its saturated vapor. Surprisingly, gels with any solvent contents, which fall into the broad range between the vapor-equilibrated and liquid-equilibrated extreme contents, retain their volumes constant in the saturated vapor atmosphere. This paradox of a wide range of gels swollen to a different extent and, nevertheless, standing in equilibrium with saturated vapor is explained by the specificity of the network polymers, namely, that the energy of the solvent-polymer interactions is easily compensated by the energy of remaining between-chain interactions at any solvent content in the above range. Therefore, the strain-free swollen gels do not generate enhanced vapor pressure, but neither display the ability to take up more sorbate from its vapor.