Sec. 2. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY
Dominating not physics alone, but nearly every other science, the
principle of the conservation of energy is justly considered as the
grandest conquest of contemporary thought. It shows us in a powerful
light the most diverse questions; it introduces order into the most
varied studies; it leads to a clear and coherent interpretation of
phenomena which, without it, appear to have no connexion with each
other; and it supplies precise and exact numerical relations between
the magnitudes which enter into these phenomena.
The boldest minds have an instinctive confidence in it, and it is the
principle which has most stoutly resisted that assault which the
daring of a few theorists has lately directed to the overthrow of the
general principles of physics. At every new discovery, the first
thought of physicists is to find out how it accords with the principle
of the conservation of energy. The application of the principle,
moreover, never fails to give valuable hints on the new phenomenon,
and often even suggests a complementary discovery.
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