VITAL ENERGY 171 



store of energy in the atoms of matter, compared 

 with which all that hitherto has been known sinks 

 into insignificance. In certain elements those that 

 show the property of radioactivity this energy is 

 being slowly given up. This has made, in certain 

 departments of thought, a complete revulsion of 

 outlook. Instead, for example, of the world gradually 

 cooling by radiation it must be getting steadily hotter 

 in its interior owing to the energy evolved by the 

 radioactive elements it contains, unless there are 

 unknown factors at work to compensate for this. 

 A world without energy, in the present state of 

 knowledge, implies a world without matter and, 

 therefore, no world at all. 



Hitherto it has been supposed that we were for 

 ever cut off from the major sources of natural energy, 

 which maintain throughout the ages the profligate 

 expenditure from the sun and stars. The coal and 

 oil from which the modern world derives its new 

 powers represent but a limited legacy from the 

 past, rather than a permanent increase in its income 

 of energy. But the discoveries in radioactivity have 

 shown that, in the smallest atoms of matter all 

 around us, there exists stores of energy a million 

 times greater than any so far harnessed. Limitless 

 physical power awaits humanity so soon as the 

 knowledge that shall lead to its control and applica- 

 tion has been obtained. How many unrecorded 

 ages elapsed before the energy of fuel was controlled, 

 and in how short a space of subsequent time has it 

 altered the whole mode of life of the world ! Given 

 a clear course and that most rare of national qualities, 

 common sense, physical science can abolish the 

 struggle for existence so far as concerns food and 

 fuel. 



But so far the pearls of science have been cast 

 before swine, who have given us in return million- 



