THE LAW OF SUBSTANCE. 479 



able. It is not the fact that the 'end of the world' is to come as sup- 

 posed in the theories of entropy and with the degradation of energy to a 

 uniform and unchanging lifelessness. Sooner or later — and time is noth- 

 ing, 'a thousand years are but as a day' — sooner or later, the collection of 

 masses will return mass-energy to the form of molecular and atomic 

 energy, now here, now there, throughout the universe, and the round of 

 eternities will be unceasing. "The eternal drama begins afresh — the 

 rotating mass, the condensation of its parts, the formation of new 

 meteorites, their combination into larger bodies, and so on."* 



* 'The Riddle of Existence'; pp. 239-248. 



