If we conceive a being whose facult

If we conceive a being whose faculties are so sharpened that he can follow every molecule in its course, such a being, whose attributes are still as essentially finite as our own, would be able to do what is impossible for us. . . . Now let us imagine [that a vessel full of air] is divided into two portions, A and £, by a division in which there is a small hole, and that a being, who can see the individual molecules, opens and closes the hole, so as to allow only the swifter molecules to pass from A to B, and only the slower ones to pass from B to A. He will thus, without expenditure of work, raise the temperature of B and lower that of A, in contradiction to the second law of thermo-dynamics. [1871:328]