CHAPTER IX 



ENERGETICS 



Movement is everywhere ; there is no such thing as immobility ; 

 the very idea of rest is itself an illusion. Immobility is only 

 apparent and relative, and disappears under closer examination. 

 All terrestrial objects are driven with prodigious velocity around 

 the sun, and the dwellers on the earth's equator travel each 

 day around the 40,000 kilometres of its circumference. All 

 objects on the globe are in motion, the inanimate as well as the 

 living. The waters rise in vapour from the sea, float over 

 mountain and valley, and return down the rivers to the sea 

 a<rain. Still more marvellous is the current of water which flows 

 eternally from dew and rain, through the sap of plants and 

 the blood of animals to the mineral world again. The very 

 mountains crumble and their substance is washed down into 

 the plains ; the winds move the air and raise the waves of the 

 sea, whilst the strong ocean currents are produced by variations 

 of temperature in different parts. This agitation, this incessant 

 and universal motion, has been a favourite subject of poetic 

 contemplation. Heraclitus writes : " There is a perpetual flow, 

 all is one universal current ; nothing remains as it was, change 

 alone is eternal." Ovid writes in his Metamorphoses : " Believe 

 me, nothing perishes in this vast universe, but all varies, and 

 changes its figure. I think that nothing endures long under 

 the same appearance. What was solid earth has become sea, 

 and solid ground has issued from the bosom of the waters." 



The French poetess Mine. Ackermann has expressed the 

 same idea in beautiful verse : — 



" Ainsi, jamais d'arret. L'immortelle matiere, 

 Un seul instant encore n'a pu se reposer. 

 La Nature ne fait, patiente ouvriere, 

 Que defaire et recomposer. 



