392 /SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



Looking around us, we behold all Nature instinct with 

 motion. The winter winds are hurrying to and fro ; the 

 storm-cloud scatters moisture from the mountains to the 

 sea; the noisy torrent foams down the hill-side, and the 

 majestic river winds ceaselessly to the ocean ; vapors rise 

 from the ground and descend again in rain and snow ; the 

 punctual tide performs unweariedly its daily perambulation 

 of the globe ; the waves' hoarse growl along the rocky 

 beach is never stilled. The forces of matter, in their mul- 

 tiple forms and their myriad labors, keep every element 

 and every atom constantly astir. If we look up, the sun, 

 and moon, and stars are on their journeys. Every planet- 

 ary orb and every satellite is full of motion. Even while 

 it performs its stupendous journey about the sun, it is for- 

 ever shifting its attitude in respect to itself. Not content 

 with orbital and axial motions, each planet nods grandly 

 from its ethereal altitude, and keeps time with the rhythm 

 of the solar year. The stars which we call " fixed" are 

 probably in motion, since twenty or thirty pairs of stars 

 are seen to revolve about each other; and, if the wonderful 

 induction of M'adler is to be credited, our sun, with his ret- 

 inue of over a hundred planets, satellites, and comets, is 

 sweeping through space on a stupendous journey of 

 18,000,000 of years. 



Now we start the inquiry whether all this motion can be 

 perpetuated forever. Motion, according to the new philos- 

 ophy, is but one of the modes of heat, or electricity, or 

 light, or magnetism, or chemical affinity. Under certain 

 circumstances, one of these forms of force is changed into 

 another. It is a law of every form of force to seek a stat- 

 ical equilibrium, and the transformation of a force signal- 

 izes its attainment of an equilibrium. A hammer descends 

 upon a bar of steel and comes to rest ; the motion is coun- 

 teracted, but at this instant, and in consequence of its dis- 



