ON THE INTERACTION OF NATURAL FORCES. 139 



understood a machine which, without being wound up, without 

 consuming in the working of it falling water, wind, or any 

 other natural force, should still continue in motion, the motive 

 power being perpetually supplied by the machine itself. Beasts 

 and human beings seemed to correspond to the idea of such an 

 apparatus, for they moved themselves energetically and in- 

 cessantly as long as they lived, and were never wound up ; 

 nobody set them in motion. A connexion between tho supply 

 of nourishment and the development of force did not make 

 itself apparent. The nourishment seemed only necessary to 

 grease, as it were, the wheelwork of the animal machine, to 

 replace what was used up, and to renew the old. The develop- 

 ment of force out of itself seemed to be the essential peculiarity, 

 the real quintessence of organic life. If, therefore, men were to 

 be constructed, a perpetual motion must first be found. 



Another hope also seemed to take up incidentally the second 

 place, which in our wiser age would certainly have claimed the 

 first rank in the thoughts of men. The perpetual motion was 

 to produce work inexhaustibly without corresponding consump- 

 tion, that is to say, out of nothing. Work, however, is money. 

 Here, therefore, the great practical problem which the cunning 

 heads of all centuries have followed in the most diverse ways, 

 namely, to fabricate money out of nothing, invited solution. 

 The similarity with the philosopher's stone sought by the 

 ancient chemists was complete. That also was thought to 

 contain the quintessence of organic life, and to be capable of 

 producing gold. 



The spur* which drove men to inquiry was sharp, and the 

 talent of some of the seekers must not be estimated as small. 

 The nature of the problem was quite calculated to entice 

 poring brains, to lead them round a circle for years, deceiving 

 ever with new expectations which vanished upon nearer approach, 

 and finally reducing these dupes of hope to open insanity. The 

 phantom could not be grasped. It would be impossible to give 

 a history of these efforts, as the clearer heads, among whom the 

 elder Droz must be ranked, convinced themselves of the futility 

 of their experiments, and were naturally not inclined to speak 



