We shall have to abandon the idea
so instinctively dear to us that matter is the most stable thing in
the universe, and to admit, on the contrary, that all bodies whatever
are a kind of explosive decomposing with extreme slowness. There is in
this, whatever may have been said, nothing contrary to any of the
principles on which the science of energetics rests; but an hypothesis
of this nature carries with it consequences which ought in the highest
degree to interest the philosopher, and we all know with what alluring
boldness M. Gustave Le Bon has developed all these consequences in his
work on the evolution of matter.[45]
[Footnote 44: This is the main contention of M. Gustave Le Bon in
his work last quoted.--ED.]
[Footnote 45: See last note.--ED.]
There is hardly a physicist who does not at the present day adopt in
one shape or another the ballistic hypothesis. All new facts are
co-ordinated so happily by it, that it more and more satisfies our
minds; but it cannot be asserted that it forces itself on our
convictions with irresistible weight.
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