MECHANISM OF NATURE 



the renewal of atoms at the centre must be, com- 

 paratively, very slow. This would hold true even 

 if the vibration theory of heat were true. 



There can hardly be any further contraction of 

 particles at the centre of a great Mass. 



What then is the temperature of this innermost 

 part of a great mass? In order for this question 

 to be decided it must first be decided what heat 

 is. If it is an occult identity, an identity now 

 residing in one mass of substance and now in an- 

 other, stored up for ages in this material or that, 

 of its own inherent potency, producing waves of 

 invariable length and frequency," then such an 

 occult power may be imagined to reside one 

 place as well as another. And under this theory of 

 heat the centre of the earth is deemed to be in- 

 tensely hot. 



But if heat is an abstract identity, a human con- 

 ception of a certain class of changes in material 

 only, then nowhere can heat reside as an identity 

 in its own right. 



Only as change do we know heat, and the in- 

 tensity of its manifestation is dependent on the 

 degree of difference in the two bodies between 

 whom it is manifested, and on the rapidity with 

 which they may undergo changes in cellular con- 

 struction. 



There cannot be any latent heat, or latent force 



of any kind; force cannot be asleep or employed 



elsewhere; an eternal change only can produce 



universal motion. And without movement there 



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