ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF A UNIVERSE. 245 



tion but it is a speculation which may be, as Mr. Soddy 

 says, "one of those coming events which cast their shadows 

 before." It is discussed here because of its extreme im- 

 portance. If the universe is running down its available 

 energy into uselessness, there must have been a precise 

 moment of time, however far back we may place it, when 

 the energy was all available and when it was initiated 

 in a sudden beginning by a single creative act. Conse- 

 quently, there must have been a time behind which our 

 present laws did not operate. Also, there must be a time in 

 the future when the universe will have grown to a definite 

 exhaustion and death. The death will come gradually but 

 the beginning must have been sudden and due to a creative 

 act. 



If on the contrary, the waste of energy is replaced by 

 growth, the universe is immortal or eternal both in the 

 future and in the past. If the old conception is true, it is 

 necessary to say, "God made it and started it at a definite 

 time to run its course." If the second conception is true, 

 we may say : ' ' The Universe is God in one phase of Him and 

 it possesses His attribute of eternal duration." This, to most 

 people of scientific training, is the more acceptable conclu- 

 sion. The solution of this great problem seems now, at any 

 rate, a legitimate aspiration of science and, for the present, 

 if the new knowledge has not proved positively that the 

 past and future of the universe is infinite, it has, beyond all 

 question, enormously increased its boundary in time. 



