252 THE EIDDLE OF THE UNIVEKSE. 



the universe itself is a perpetwwm mobile. This infinite 

 and eternal " machine of the universe " sustains itself 

 in eternal and uninterrupted movement, because every 

 impediment is compensated by an " equivalence of 

 energy," and the unlimited sum of kinetic and poten- 

 tial energy remains always the same. The law of 

 the persistence of force proves also that the idea of 

 a perpetwwm mobile is just as applicable to, and as 

 significant for, the cosmos as a whole as it is impos- 

 sible for the isolated action of any part of it. Hence 

 the theory of entropy is likewise untenable. 



The able founder of the mechanical theory of heat 

 (1850), Clausius, embodied the momentous contents 

 of this important theory in two theses. The first 

 runs : " The energy of the universe is constant " — 

 that is one half of our law of substance, the principle 

 of energy (vide p. 235). The second thesis is : " The 

 energy of the universe tends towards a maximum." 

 In my opinion this second assertion is just as 

 erroneous as the first is true. In the theory of 

 Clausius the entire energy of the universe is of two 

 kinds, one of which (heat of the higher degree, 

 mechanical, electrical, chemical energy, etc.) is partly 

 convertible into work, but the other is not ; the latter 

 energy, already converted into heat and distributed in 

 the cooler masses, is irrevocably lost as far as any 

 further work is concerned. Clausius calls this uncon- 

 sumed energy, which is no longer available for 

 mechanical work, entropy (that is, force that is directed 

 inwards) ; it is continually increasing at the cost of 

 the other half. As, therefore, the mechanical energy 

 of the universe is daily being transformed into heat, 

 and this cannot be reconverted into mechanical force, 

 the sum of heat and energy in the universe must 



