248 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



II. — The duration of the world is equally infinite 

 and unbounded ; it has no beginning and no end : it 

 is eternity. 



III. — Substance is everywhere and always in unin- 

 terrupted movement and transformation : nowhere is 

 there perfect repose and rigidity ; yet the infinite 

 quantity of matter and of eternally changing force 

 remains constant. 



IV. — This universal movement of substance in 

 space takes the form of an eternal cycle or of a 

 periodical process of evolution. 



V. — The phases of this evolution consist in a 

 periodic change of consistency, of which the first 

 outcome is the primary division into mass and ether 

 — the ergonomy of ponderable and imponderable 

 matter. 



VI. — This division is effected by a progressive con- 

 densation of matter as the formation of countless 

 infinitesimal " centres of condensation," in which the 

 inherent primitive properties of substance — feeling 

 and inclination — are the active causes. 



VII. — While minute and then larger bodies are 

 being formed by this pyknotie process in one part of 

 space, and the intermediate ether increases its strain, 

 the opposite process — the destruction of cosmic bodies 

 by collision — is taking place in another quarter. 



VIII. — The immense quantity of heat which is 

 generated in this mechanical process of the collision 

 of swiftly-moving bodies represents the new kinetic 

 energy which effects the movement of the resultant 

 nebulae and the construction of new rotating bodies. 

 The eternal drama begins afresh. Even our mother 

 earth, which was formed of part of the gyrating solar 

 system millions of ages ago, will grow cold and lifeless 



