EQUILIBRATION. 497 



become lost to observation in motions communicated to the 

 atmosphere and the matter on the shores. The impulse 

 given by a player to the harp-string, is transformed through 

 its vibrations into aerial pulses; and these, spreading on all 

 sides, and weakening as they spread, soon cease to be per- 

 ceptible ; and finally die away in generating thermal undula- 

 tions that radiate into space. Equally in the cinder that 

 falls out of the fire, and in the vast masses of molten lava 

 ejected by a volcano, we see that the molecular agitation 

 known to us as heat, disperses itself by radiation; so that how- 

 ever great its amount, it inevitably sinks at last to the same 

 degree as that existing in surrounding bodies. And if the 

 actions observed be electrical or chemical, we still find that 

 they work themselves out in producing sensible or insensible 

 movements, that are dissipated as before ; until quiescence is 

 eventually reached. The proximate rationale of 



the process exhibited under these several forms, lies in the 

 fact dwelt on when treating of the Multiplication of Effects, 

 that motions are ever being decomposed into divergent mo- 

 tions, and these into re-divergent motions. The rolling stone 

 sends off the stones it hits in directions differing more or less 

 from its own; and they do the like with the things they hit. 

 Move water or air, and the movement is quickly resolved into 

 radiating movements. The heat produced by pressure in a 

 given direction, diffuses itself by undulations in all direc- 

 tions ; and so do the light and electricity similarly generated. 

 That is to say, these motions undergo division and subdivi- 

 sion ; and by continuance of this process without limit, they 

 are, though never lost, gradually reduced to insensible mo- 

 tions. 



In all cases then, there is a progress toward equilibra- 

 tion. That universal co-existence of antagonist forces 

 which, as we before saw, necessitates the universality of 

 rhythm, and which, as we before saw, necessitates the de- 

 composition of every force into divergent forces, at the same 

 time necessitates the ultimate establishment of a balance. 



