EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 291 



the fact that the formula must be one comprehending the 

 two opposite processes of concentration and diffusion. And 

 already in thus describing the general nature of the formula, 

 we have approached a specific expression of it. The change 

 from a diffused, imperceptible state, to a concentrated, per- 

 ceptible state, is an integration of matter and concomitant 

 dissipation of motion; and the change from a concentrated, 

 perceptible state, to a diffused, imperceptible state, is an 

 absorption of motion and concomitant disintegration of 

 matter. These are truisms. Constituent parts cannot ag- 

 gregate without losing some of their relative motion; and 

 they cannot separate without more relative motion being 

 given to them. We are not concerned here with any motion 

 which the components of a mass have with respect to other 

 masses: we are concerned only with the motion they have 

 with respect to one another. Confining our attention to this 

 internal motion, and to the matter possessing it, the axiom 

 which we have to recognize is that a progressing consolida- 

 tion involves a decrease of internal motion; and that in- 

 crease of internal motion involves a progressing unconsolida- 

 tion. , 



When taken together, the two opposite processes thus 

 formulated constitute the history of every sensible exist- 

 ence, under its simplest form. Loss of motion and conse- 

 quent integration, eventually followed by gain of motion 

 and consequent disintegration — see here a statement com- 

 prehensive of the entire series of changes passed through: 

 comprehensive in an extremely general way, as any state- 

 ment which holds of sensible existences at large must be; 

 but still, comprehensive in the sense that all the changes 

 gone through fall within it. This will probably be thought 

 too sweeping an assertion; but we shall quickly find it 

 justified. 



§ 95. For here we have to note the further all-impor- 

 tant fact, that every change undergone by every sensible ex- 



