CHAPTEE XXIII. 



DISSOLUTION. 



§ 177. When, in Chapter XII., Ave glanced at the cycle 

 of changes through which every existence passes, in its pro- 

 gress from the imperceptible to the perceptible and again 

 from the perceptible to the imperceptible — when these 

 opposite re-distributions of matter and motion were sev- 

 erally distinguished as Evolution and Dissolution; the na- 

 tures of the two, and the conditions under which they 

 respectively occur, were specified in general terms. Since 

 then, we have contemplated the phenomena of Evolution in 

 detail ; and have followed them out to those states of equilib- 

 rium in which they all end. To complete the argument 

 we must now contemplate, somewhat more in detail than 

 before, the complementary phenomena of Dissolution. 

 Xot, indeed, that we need dwell long on Dissolution, which 

 has none of those various and interesting aspects which Evo- 

 lution presents; but something more must be said than has 

 yet been said. 



It was shown that neither of these two antagonistic pro- 

 cesses ever goes on absolutely unqualified by the other; 

 and that a change towards either is a differential result of 

 the conflict between them. An evolving aggregate, while 

 on the average losing motion and integrating, is always, in 

 one way or other, receiving some motion and to that extent 

 disintegrating; and after the integrative changes have 

 ceased to predominate, the reception of motion, though 



531 



