Bickerton. — On tlie Immortality of the Cosmos. 539 



effect from any portion of matter by cooling it below the 

 temperature of the coldest of surrounding objects." Yet I 

 shall attempt to show that hydrogen nearly at rest may take 

 heat from a particle of cosmic dust, and, in this way, cool it 

 below the temperature of surrounding objects, and that this 

 energy may take the hydrogen to positions of higher gravita- 

 tion potential. Thus low-temperature heat is turned into the 

 potential energy of gravitation. I shall also attempt to show 

 that by inorganic means the known laws of nature are at 

 work taking the place of Professor Clerk Maxwell's imaginary 

 demons, who, he suggests, by sorting atoms, may elevate 

 energy. 



I do not in the least quarrel with Lord Kelvin's argument 

 in the Fortnightly, in which he classifies the attempt of 

 Hutton and Lyell to make the solar system a perpetual- 

 motion engine as of the same order as the efforts of the 

 humblest mechanical perpetual- motionist. Undoubtedly 

 Lord Kelvin's views are true of the earth, of the solar system, 

 and even of the universe. It is only in the study of the inter- 

 action of systems that the axiom is found to fail. 



Of course, the great generalization of cosmic evolution, of 

 which this paper is a part, only acquired its present form as 

 contained in the published Synopsis after almost endless 

 modifications ; but for the past twelve years, although en- 

 larged, it has otherwise remained practically unchanged, and, 

 although I have in many lectures submitted its principles to 

 the judgment of Honours scientific and mathematical uni- 

 versity graduates, no flaw has yet been detected in the 



reasoning. 



The practical demonstration of the accuracy of the more 

 fundamental part of this generalization by its anticipation of 

 many recently-discovered and complex phenomena, combined 

 with the independent rediscovery by Dr. Johnstone Stoney, and 

 the indorsement by the scientific world, of what I have called 

 " selective molecular escape," confirms the confidence I have 

 always felt in the more complex and far-reaching part of the 

 theory of constructive impact. 



The theory of the dissipation of energy as defined by 

 Preston ("Theory of Heat") states, with respect to the 

 energy of the universe, that "it is constantly undergoing 

 transformations," and that "there is a constant dissipation in 

 operation, and a constant degradation to the final unavailable 

 form of uniformly-diffused heat." 



It affirms, practically, that all the agencies of the cosmos 

 tend to concentration of matter and diffusion of energy. In 

 its baldest form it supposes that the cosmos was once a mass 

 of infinitely diffused gas, and will finish by being a simple, 

 cool body, at a temperature uniform with that of space. The 



