THE OLD MECHANICAL PEOBLEM. 213 



From these efforts to imitate living creatures, another idea, 

 also by a misunderstanding, seems to have developed itself, 

 which, as it were, formed the new philosopher's stone of the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was now the endeav- 

 our to construct a perpetual motion. Under this term was un- 

 derstood a machine, which, without being wound up, without 

 consuming in the working of it, falling water, wind, or any 

 other natural force, should still continue in motion, the motive 

 power being perpetually supplied by the machine itself. Beasts 

 and human beings seemed to correspond to the idea of such an 

 apparatus, for they moved themselves energetically and inces- 

 santly as long as they lived, were never wound up, and nobody 

 set them in motion. A connection between the taking-in of 

 nourishment and the development of force did not make itself 

 apparent. The nourishment seemed only necessary to grease, 

 as it were, the wheelwork of the animal machine, to replace 

 what was used up, and to renew the old. The development 

 of force out of itself seemed to be the essential peculiarity, the 

 real quintessence of organic life. If, therefore, men were to 

 be constructed, a perpetual motion must first be found. 



Another hope also seemed to take up incidentally the sec- 

 ond place, which, in our wiser age, would certainly have 

 claimed the first rank in the thoughts of men. The perpetual 

 motion was to produce work inexhaustibly without corre- 

 sponding consumption, that is to say, out of nothing. Work, 

 however, is money. Here, therefore, the practical problem 

 which the cunning heads of all centuries have followed in the 

 most diverse ways, namely, to fabricate money out of nothing, 

 invited solution. The similarity with the philosopher's stone 

 sought by the ancient chemists was complete. That also 

 was thought to contain the quintessence of organic life, and to 

 be capable of producing gold. 



The spur which drove men to inquiry was sharp, and the 

 talent of some of the seekers must not be estimated as smaD. 

 The nature of the problem was quite calculated to entice por- 



