320 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



earth, that, according to the doctrinaires, were set out to 

 cool ten million centuries ago in the absolute zero of 

 space, yet even they, mere dwarfs as compared to the sun, 

 are still glowing with fervid heat. Behold the starry 

 host, whose genesis lies in darkest shadow; yet in the 

 present we see them brilliant and serene without a hint 

 of senility about them. Surely there is a principle of 

 vitality about this universe of ours that the wise have 

 overlooked! 



In the commercial field scientists have for years been 

 seeking to devise methods and means for economizing 

 mechanical power. To some extent they have succeeded, 

 but they have invariably discovered that, for all their 

 skill and care, every successive step in the processes of 

 conversion, from coal to heat, from heat to steam, from 

 steam to mechanical motion, from this motion into elec- 

 tricity, etc., there is a leakage which defies fathoming. 

 Yet in spite of their failure to trace these losses and to 

 demonstrate quantitatively the verity of the doctrine of 

 conservation, they ignore these lessons entirely and cling 

 unreasoningly to this their pet delusion. They seem to 

 proceed on the assumption that phenomena must adapt 

 themselves to theory, not theory to the phenomena. 

 Now, a little reflection ought to convince all that in in- 

 animate nature these transformations, which are continu- 

 ally and uninterruptedly occurring, are likewise amenable 

 to just such leakages as these, and that were the doctrine 

 indeed true, the descent from high potential to the low- 

 est should run its course so fast as scarcely to last a year. 

 Given a mountain reservoir with the sluices left wide 

 open, the rush for the sea would be short, swift and ruin- 

 ous; given a highland brook continuously replenished 

 by the rains, the flow of power will be equable and peren- 

 nial. The mills of Nature are not driven by an aval- 

 anche, but by steady evolvement of power. 



Our doctrinaires tell us that there is no such thing as 

 creative energy in nature. They construe the operation 

 of an infinity of years as if it were but a momentary act 

 They tell us that the earth attracts the moon and holds 



