GRAVISTATIC HEAT 315 



master and mentor. But this preposterous assumption 

 fails to correlate the phenomenon of the moon's accelera- 

 tion, and the whole subject is consequently as awry as 

 ever. 



It is this paganish dogma of conservation of mo- 

 ments that constitutes the chief pillar of the so-called 

 doctrine of 



CONSERVATION OF ENERGY 



"The quantum of energy within any isolated system 

 is absolutely invariable in amount". 



I peremptorily challenge this teaching as a gross 

 libel on Nature and a wanton perversion of the plain 

 facts. Laymen, in general, seem to have imbibed the im- 

 pression that in this generalization science has struck 

 rock-bottom, and that it constitutes a virtual guarantee 

 of the perpetuity of the universe and a solid foundation 

 upon which to anchor the science of physics for all time 

 to come. No conclusion could be farther from the truth. 

 The classical English work on this theme is that of Prof. 

 Balfour Stewart, and was first published in the year 1870. 

 This is how he concludes : 



We are led to look to a beginning in which the particles of 

 matter were in a diffuse chaotic state, but endowed with the 

 power of gravitation, and we are led to look to an end in which 

 the whole universe will be one equally heated inert mass, and 

 from which everything like life or motion or beauty will have 

 utterly gone away. 



Although you and I can have no personal concern in 

 the ultimate fate of the physical universe so far as our 

 present existence is concerned, yet I imagine that we all 

 experience a greater or less philosophical interest in the 

 academic question as to whether the universe had a be- 

 ginning and whether it shall ever have an end. For my 

 part, the doctrine that the universe is a vast machine in 

 the act of running down from an original state of wound- 

 up-ness to a futile and inglorious fiasco, is little short 

 of blasphemy. Nor do I believe that I am alone in this 

 sentiment. The perseverance with which all ranks of 



