200 THE WORLD-ENEMY 



and, indeed, this appears to be what is really meant by 

 the theory of the dissipation of energy. 



Is this equilibrium necessarily an equilibrium of death, 

 or could there possibly be for the universe just as well an 

 equilibrium of life? 



Implicitly, at least, the answer to this question has 

 already been given. The totality of energy remains for- 

 ever unchanged. As energy, it is changelessly active. 

 ' ' To every action there is always an equal and opposite 

 reaction/' Hence, the totality of energy must always 

 have been in equilibrium. For its activity could only be 

 within and upon itself ; and, since the activity of the one 

 unchanging energy must be changelessly the same, includ- 

 ing the aspect of reaction, then the total product must 

 likewise be changelessly the same. 



Evidently, unless energy persists in all its relations, 

 there is thus far, on the one hand, a failure of the per- 

 sistence of energy itself; while, on the other hand, a 

 failure of energy to persist in all its relations necessarily 

 implies that the correlation of the various phases of energy 

 is, after all, not complete. In which case there would be 

 absolute lines of separation in the total energy ; whence, 

 in reality, there must be many mutually exclusive forces. 

 And this is the same as saying that the doctrine of the 

 correlation of forces is no more than a fiction. 



In short, the conclusion that the energy of the universe 

 is undergoing degradation, or that it is in any way in a 

 process of running down to a dead level of rigid equi- 

 librium, would seem to have been drawn from premises 

 which were no doubt perfectly "exact," but which, there 

 is reason to believe, were insufficient in their scope. In 

 the first place, the conclusion is based upon mathematical 



