THE EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD. 253 



continually tend to be reduced and dissipated. All 

 difference of temperature must ultimately disappear, 

 and the completely latent heat must be equally distri- 

 buted through one inert mass of motionless matter. 

 All organic life and movement must cease when this 

 maximum of entropy has been reached. That would 

 be a real " end of the world." 



If this theory of entropy were true, we should have 

 a " beginning " corresponding to this assumed " end " 

 of the world — a minimum of entropy, in which the 

 differences in temperature of the various parts of the 

 cosmos would be at a maximum. Both ideas are 

 quite untenable in the light of our monistic and con- 

 sistent theory of the eternal cosmogenetic process ; 

 both contradict the law of substance. There is neither 

 beginning nor end of the world. The universe is 

 infinite, and eternally in motion ; the conversion of 

 kinetic into potential energy, and vicissim, goes on 

 uninterruptedly ; and the sum of this actual and 

 potential energy remains constant. The second thesis 

 of the mechanical theory of heat contradicts the first, 

 and so must be rejected. 



The representatives of the theory of entropy are 

 quite correct as long as they confine themselves to 

 distinct processes, in which, under certain conditions, 

 the latent heat cannot be reconverted into work. 

 Thus, for instance, in the steam-engine the heat can 

 only be converted into mechanical work when it 

 passes from a warmer body (steam) into a cooler 

 (water) ; the process cannot be reversed. In the 

 world at large, however, quite other conditions obtain 

 — conditions which permit the reconversion of latent 

 heat into mechanical work. For instance, in the 

 collision of two heavenly bodies, which rush towards 



