er Herr Duehring says: "Where a fixed element of existence is
capable of measurement, it will remain in unalterable stability. This
is evident from material and mechanical force." The former quotation
gives, it may be incidentally mentioned, a good example of Herr
Duehring's axiomatic grandiloquence. Fixed quantities remain exactly
the same, the quantity of mechanical force, once in the universe, is
always the same. We will not dwell on this, so far as it is true,
Descartes knew and said it three hundred years ago as regards
philosophy, while in mechanical science the doctrine of the
conservation of energy has been preached for the last twenty years.
Herr Duehring has not improved upon it in so far as he limits it to
mechanical energy. But where was mechanical energy at the period of
unchangeableness? To this question Herr Duehring stubbornly refuses an
answer.

Where was the unchangeable mechanical force then, Herr Duehring, and
what was it busy about? Answer: "The original state of the universe,
or, better, the existence of unchangeable matter, not allowing of any
changes in time, is a question which no mind can pass except one which
sees the acme of wisdom in the destruction of its own powers."
Therefore you must either take my original condition with your eyes
shut, or I, the lusty Eugene Duehring, brand you as an intellectual
eunuch. Some people might be quite alarmed about this, but we who have
seen a few examples of Herr Duehring's powers, can let the elegant
abuse pass and reiterate the question, "But how about that mechanical
energy, Herr Duehring, if you please?"

Herr Duehring is staggered at once. In fact, he stammers, "There is no
proof of the actual existence of that original condition. Let us
remember that this is also the case with each new step in the series
with which we are acquainted. He therefore who will make difficulties
in the foregoing case may see that he does not avoid them in the
smaller apparent cases. Besides, the possibility exists that there are
successively graduated intermediate states inserted, and thus there is
a stable bridge by the means of which we can work backwards to the
solution of the problem. As a matter of fact this notion of stability
does not assist the main thought, but it is for us the fundamental
form of regular progression, and of each transition known so far, so
that we have a right to consider it as intermediate between the first
original state and its disturbance.