CHAPTER VI. 



The Primary Laws of Energy. 



The scientist's dream of a universal law of energy 

 dominating all other laws seems from the latest data 

 to be an aspiration destined never to be realised, for, 

 as we shall show anon, even gravitation resolves itself 

 into a quite secondary natural law. All energies are per- 

 force so trammelled by necessary accessories, so com- 

 promised to the use of unavoidable agents, so bound 

 by indispensable conditions, so governed by insur- 

 mountable environments, and so pushed and elbowed 

 aside by self-assertive coefficients, that no law, thing, 

 being, cause, or atom is individually omnipotent, for 

 each is subject to other equally powerful constituents. 

 Any alleged universal law, therefore, framed for the 

 purposes of scientific exposition, can only be one 

 which comprises, or is the sum of, all the primary 

 forces in the universe. What we assert these forces to 

 be we now enunciate serially. The most fundamental 

 law of nature, in the first place, ought to be revealed 

 by the atoms themselves, when they transform from 



