THE AUTHOR'S THEORIES OUTLINED 31 



Another preliminary question to consider is this: 

 Is the universe finite or infinite in extent? According 

 to the doctrine of the Conservation of Energy, the 

 universe as a machine is "running down". We are 

 taught that, precisely as matter in the "Beginning" ex- 

 isted of itself, so did its motions, and, further, that this 

 original energy of motion has ever since been undergoing 

 transmutation into thermal energy by the agglomera- 

 tion of this matter into larger and larger, and by the 

 same token into fewer and fewer, units. This process, 

 they go on, is to continue indefinitely until every vestige 

 of the primordial cosmic dust shall have been swallowed 

 up in one final immense body, which by slow contraction 

 will become solidly compact, dissipate all its heat into 

 surrounding space, and eventually deteriorate into noth- 

 ing less inglorious than a monstrous junk-heap of 

 perished worlds. The only condition on which they will 

 concede the universe to be eternal is that it be veritably 

 infinite in extent, so that this procession of stars plung- 

 ing to their common doom may go on interminably. 



Against this whole conception I protest most ve- 

 hemently; holding that, whether the universe be finite 

 or infinite in extent, the Present Order is potentially 

 permanent and enduring. I contend, with Aristotle, 

 that rest is the natural state of matter, from which 

 every departure must be susceptible of dynamical ex- 

 planation; and in defense of this conviction I expect to 

 show to the satisfaction of every open-minded reader 

 that the so-called inherent motions of stars, planets, sun 

 and nebulae are legitimate gravitational phenomena 

 easily explicable by the aid of the stellar resultant. 

 Keason as we will, however, about gravitation, it will 

 always remain in essence a force of concentration, of cen- 

 tralization; and if not efficiently counteracted it spells 

 universal ruin in the end, however long deferred. Is 

 there, then, no counterpoise to this of Nature's shrewd 

 devising? Has not her duality, her trick of pairing op- 

 posite s, long been the fertile theme of philosophers and 

 scientists, and shall her ingenuity fail her in this, her 



