802 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



legitimizing the conception that suns and stars are evolved, not out of 

 debris, and weak statical force, but from the primordial plenum itself, 

 equipped with latent power in equilibrium, we can view them as they 

 apparently are perennial fountains of energy incandescent lamps of 

 eternity drawing their supplies from the mysterious stoppage of pri- 

 mordial motions, with the accompanying evolution of chemical ele- 

 ments, and the radiation of liberated energy in torrents. 



Energy of position is undoubtedly a factor, among others more 

 important, in an evolving nebula or sun. It should be given its due 

 value, but no more. There is evidence to show that even the transla- 

 tory motions of suns and worlds can not be wholly accounted for by 

 gravity alone. This is furnished by the large proper motion of some 

 of the stars, particularly the notable instance of 1830 of Groombridge's 

 catalogue, with a linear velocity of at least two hundred miles per 

 second, if observations are to be trusted. An analysis by Newcomb 

 proves conclusively that all the stars of the visible portion of the uni- 

 verse, and all the possible dark masses which could exist there, are 

 widely incapable either of furnishing a star with such an amount of 

 motion, or of stopping it. 



The recognition of kinetics, then, in conjunction with dynamics, is 

 what I desire to call attention to, in our philosophical attempts to ex- 

 tend our generalizations. We need to take note of all the forces and 

 factors which we can perceive ; and even then it is probable that our 

 field of inspection will be too restricted to yield a satisfactory insight 

 into that which was born from eternity. But that should not induce 

 us to settle down on a " good enough universe " for finite comprehen- 

 sion, nor plead for boundaries to the infinite and eternal. Some mathe- 

 maticians have invented a space cut down to finite comprehension. 

 The trouble with these finite infinities and limited universes is, that 

 they do not satisfy the mind, nor the definitions. 



Although the course of the present order of creation is far longer 

 than can be assigned or imagined, and, even as to our solar system, 

 illimitable as measured by our cycles, no doubt it runs its course, for 

 we can see the evidence of progressive change. The struggle for the 

 elimination of energy in its entanglement with mass is a fiercer and 

 more protracted one than we dreamed of, but it goes surely on to its 

 termination. The energy by which the small vehicles were possessed 

 escapes by slow dissipation back into the great storehouse of equili- 

 brated power whence it was arrested, as gases return to the parent 

 atmosphere from the rotting wood of the forest. The molecule is 

 never finally taken apart, that we can see. The skeleton-heaps, in 

 rigid and icy bonds, wander forever as debris and dust through the 

 streams of space. Their amount, however, is so infinitesimal compared 

 with the infinite magazine of their elements which has never been sub- 

 ject to change throughout the eternities, that they may be regarded 

 as but the calculi resulting from the merest nodules of local and tern- 



