g as small as a mathematical differential.
The bridge of stability is therefore not even a _pons asinorum_. Herr
Duehring is the only person able to cross it.

Thirdly, as long as the present theories of mechanics prevail, this
constitutes one of Herr Duehring's most reliable props, we cannot
indicate how anything passes from a state of quiescence to one of
motion. But the mechanical theory of heat teaches us that the movement
of the mass depends upon the movements of the molecules, (so that even
in this case movement proceeds from other movement and not from lack
of movement) and this Herr Duehring shyly points out might serve as a
bridge between the entirely static (the state of equipoise) and the
dynamic (self-movement). But here Herr Duehring leaves us entirely in
the dark. All his deepening and sharpening has dug a pit of folly and
we are brought up necessarily in "darkness." But Herr Duehring
troubles himself very little about that. He says right on the next
page, with considerable audacity that he has been able to endow the
self contained stability with real significance by means of the
properties of matter and the mechanical forces.

In spite of all these errors and confused statements we have still an
inspiring faith remaining that "The mathematics of the inhabitants of
other planets cannot rest on any axioms other than our own."

_Cosmogony, Physics, and Chemistry._

Proceeding we come to theories respecting the mode by which the world,
as it is to-day, came into being. A universal separation of matter
from one element was the notion of the Ionic philosophers, but, since
Kant, the conception of an original nebulous state has played a new
role and according to this gravitation and heat expansion have built
up the worlds, little by little and one by one. The mechanical theory
of heat of our time has fixed the origin of the earlier condition of
the universe with much greater precision.

In spite of all this "the universal condition of the gaseous form can
only be a point of departure for serious conclusions if one can define
the mechanical system of it more precisely beforehand. If not, the
idea becomes not only very cloudy, but the original nebula becomes
really in the progress of those conclusions denser and more
impenetrable."... For the present everything remains in the vagueness
and formlessness of an indefinite idea, and so with regard to the
gaseous universe we have only an insubstantial conception.