THE MEANING OF DISSOLUTION 



contains the life or history of nature, being occu- 

 pied with the slow but inevitable running -down 

 or degradation of the great store of energy from 

 an active to an inactive or unavailable condition." 

 Recent discoveries, such as that of intra-atomic 

 energy, radio-activity, and the presence of radium 

 in the earth's crust, may show that the watch will 

 run for millions of asons longer than we had thought ; 

 but they do not affect the fact that it is running 

 down. The imminent picture suggested by the law 

 of the degradation of energy into heat and its dis- 

 sipation throughout space is that of a dead uni- 

 verse, existent, indeed, but no better than a perdur- 

 able corpse "stable in desolation," as Stevenson 

 has it. 



Now ere we inquire whether there are indications 

 that this is the whole truth we may note how 

 remarkably this, which is the accepted scientific 

 teaching of the time, consorts with various con- 

 ceptions of the Deity. It is exactly compatible 

 with the idea of God as entertained by Boyle and 

 Paley and Cowper the Great Artificer. He built 

 the watch, wound it up, and, as Carlyle has it 

 in Sartor Resartus, is now the absentee God, who 

 has sat idle since the first Sabbath, watching the 

 universe go. And when it has at last run down, 

 He alone can wind it up. If we pursue the meta- 

 phor somewhat further, we may inquire whence the 

 Watch-maker obtained the materials from which 

 the watch is made. And here is an analogy which 

 breeds an insuperable difficulty. For the human 



