FIELD AND STUDY 



§ 



Are we not safe in saying that matter certainly 

 modifies itself, that its incessant physical and chem- 

 ical changes are self -produced? At any rale, there 

 is self-activity in the material universe, perpetual 

 motion of the whole — a whole without boundaries, 

 which seems a contradiction. Perpetual motion of 

 a part is impossible; that is, without drawing upon 

 sources of energy outside itself. And perpetual mo- 

 tion where nothing is at rest is another contradic- 

 tion; the motion of the whole is equivalent to the 

 rest of the whole. A balloon drifting in the air is at 

 rest with reference to the moving, air. 



Why the forces of the universe do not find their 

 equilibrium — the angle of repose, the state of a 

 uniform temperature — who knows? Its energy is 

 stored in the atom as potential energy; what is it 

 that converts it into the energy of. motion? Accord- 

 ing to the principles of mechanics should we not 

 expect the vast machinery of the universe to run 

 down, or the motion of matter to cease or become 

 only potential? We cannot think of the energy of 

 the universe as being dissipated but of itself; there 

 is no out of the universe. Energy can only be trans- 

 formed, not destroyed; it must persist somewhere. 

 Archimedes might have moved the world had lie 

 had a place outside the world from which to bring 

 his power to bear. 



We can think of the entities as acting upon one 

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