198 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



" The principle of degradation/' says Balfour Stewart, 

 "would appear to hold throughout; and if we regard 

 not mere matter, but useful energy, we are driven to con- 

 template the death of the universe."* 



Assuredly this would be a deplorable outcome 

 especially as it could scarcely be hoped that there would 

 be any survivors to mourn the loss of the "useful 

 energy." In any case we seem here to arrive from the 

 opposite direction, at the same difficulty as that which 

 presented itself at a previous stage of our inquiry. The 

 difficulty is that of discovering an adequate principle 

 of motion. 



On its first presenting itself the difficulty was to find 

 a principle that could initiate motion. It now appears 

 under the form of an unavailing search for a principle 

 adequate to maintain motion. What if the really hope- 

 less search should prove to be for a principle or "force" 

 adequate to the putting an end to motion? seeing that 

 "rest" is altogether inconceivable as a state of matter. 



It would seem that we might formulate our need 

 thus: "Wanted: a sufficient reason alike for the birth 

 and for the death of the universe." Meanwhile the 

 undeniable and assuring fact of the universe itself, as 

 here and now actually existent and throbbing with 

 vitality manifested in motion, offers itself pending the 

 settlement of such questions as whether in truth the 

 " universe' ever was really born, or whether it will 

 ever indeed die whether, if its birth can really be even 

 conjecturally dated, we can ever hope to estimate out 

 of what possible conditions of chaos or mere void it 



* ''Elementary Lessons in Physics,' 1 ' 1 p. 375, and similarly at the close of his 

 work on the " Conservation of Energy." 



