394 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



we tread. Every one has hoard of the chimera of" perpet- 

 ual motion." Not every one, however, has considered that 

 the impossibility of perpetual motion results from the im- 

 possibility of transforming forces in a perpetual circle. 

 Force shuns perpetual motion. It tolerates no such mo- 

 notony. It is seeking rest. In larger or smaller quantities 

 it steals away from you, and lies down to a quiet slumber, 

 while your machine is deserted and motionless as a corpse. 

 Heat filters in every direction through the atmosphere; 

 motion steals through the bearings of your wheels, and, 

 under the guise of frictional heat, it sneaks away from your 

 control. 



All motion is mechanical. There is no motion in the 

 heavens above, or upon the earth beneath, which is not ef 1 

 fected by the self-same forces as we incorporate in a steam- 

 engine, or vainly strive to chain to the drudgery of perpet- 

 ual motion. Every movement which we witness upon the 

 earth — whether of winds, or clouds, or waters, or quaking 

 mountains, is but the motion of some part of a machine. 

 The earth is a piece of mechanism. The varied motions 

 which we witness upon its surface arise from the perpetual 

 transformations of force. The solar system is a piece of 

 mechanism. All its visible motions have been demon- 

 strated to arise from the action of the same force as that 

 which drives a water-wheel or a hydraulic ram. 



The question then arises whether the motions of a great 

 machine are more likely to be perpetuated than those of a 

 small one. A vast and complicated machine can be noth- 

 ing more than a concatenation of small ones. The very 

 statement of the case suggests a negative response. Ter- 

 restrial forces, like those which impel the locomotive, are 

 wearing themselves out. All their activities are destined 

 to be invaded by the sluggishness of age — by the torpor 

 of death. The cosmical machine, like a clock, is running 



