FORCE 47 



to the radiation of energy it would seem that sun and 

 stars and all material things must finally become dark 

 and cold. 



Even if we claim that the concussion of falling 

 bodies generates the light and heat of the universe, 

 yet it is evident that with infinite time a finite number 

 of finite quantities of matter must do their work and 

 part with their energy. 



Looking backward we might ask, If sun and stars 

 have existed through an infinite past, how is it possible 

 for them to be in their present highly heated condition? 

 We know that they are material bodies, and that, like 

 other bodies of matter, they must part with their 

 heat and light. It is evident, therefore, that they 

 cannot have had their present high temperatures 

 through an infinite past. The present high tempera- 

 ture of the sun has, according to any physical theory, 

 been maintained but a few millions of years at most. 

 The vast sums of energy in matter have in some way 

 been stored up there within finite time, and the finite 

 future will serve to dissipate this energy through 

 infinite space. 



It may be claimed that past time is infinite, that 

 matter has existed during the infinite past, and that, 

 consequently, the fact that much of it is so highly 

 heated is evidence that worlds may be kept glowing 

 with light and heat through an infinite future. In 

 answer to this we may say that we know of no phys- 

 ical means by which a finite quantity of matter, sur- 

 rounded by an infinite quantity of ether, could be 

 kept hot through infinite time — and this for the rea- 

 son that the light and heat of this matter would be 

 Tadiated into infinite space, with no known method 

 by which they could again be concentrated in matter. 



The present concentration of energy in matter, as 

 we see it in the sun and stars, has taken place within 



