2 54 MAN AND THE WORLD. 



causes be Infinite, If there be no such thing as a 

 first cause, the whole series dangles uselessly in the 

 air or falls asunder, inasmuch as each of the rela- 

 tive causes receives no necessity to transmit to the 

 next beneath it, and hence the ultimate effect also is 

 not necessary. 



§ 9. And, as might have been expected, these 

 metaphysical contradictions reappear In science in 

 the shape of conflicts between the supposed Infinity 

 of the physical world and some of the most valu- 

 able scientific principles. 



Thus the Impossibility of thinking a world Infinite 

 In Space as a whole nullifies the principle of the 

 conservation of energy, makes It Impossible to re- 

 gard the universe as a conservative system, and 

 thus brings upon physics a terrible Nemesis in the 

 shape of the dissipation of energy. For if we duly 

 take successively Increasing spheres In Space, It Is 

 easily apparent that there is uncompensated loss of 

 energy in each, and that the greater part of the 

 energy radiated out by the bodies within it Is lost, 

 not being arrested, by bodies on which it can im- 

 pinge. Hence the larger the concentric spheres 

 become, the greater the loss of energy, until finally 

 the amount of energy would become infinitesimal. 

 Now at first it might seem possible to reply to this 

 by the mathematical argument that the universe 

 being Infinite, the energy radiated out In any direc- 

 tion Is certain sooner or later to hit upon some body 

 hnd thus to avoid being lost. But to this It might 

 be similarly answered, that as In an Infinite number 

 of these cases the body absorbing the energy would 

 be at an Infinite distance, the energy protected 

 would be infinitely small, i.e., nothing. And besides 

 the argument presupposes an Impossibility, and 



