The case occurred, about three thousand years after the creation. At that time, states, governments, and courts of justice had been fully established. In one of the larger islands not far from the northern continent, a somewhat turbulent citizen had, in a quarrel commenced by himself, ‘evanesced’ one of his neighbours, a man who happened to be exceedingly popular in the community where he dwelt. Public indignation was thereby excited to a terrible pitch. Cases of violent evanescence, or, as we should call them, murder, were frequent in the earlier periods; but, at the time of this outrage, they were beginning to be regarded with much disfavour. Owing to the absence of reproduction, it was quite plain that, unless this practice was discountenanced, the depopulation of the planet was inevitable; and, inasmuch as the question ‘Is Life worth living?’ had not yet been answered in the negative, it was resolved that the whole force of society should be brought to bear against all violent evanishers. This state of public opinion, combined with the great amiability of the victim, induced the judges to pass on the criminal a sentence which they must have believed to amount to eternal punishment, namely, penal servitude for life. Life was, at that time, held to be interminable, except by violence; and, inasmuch as the convict in prison was secure from everything of the kind, the sentence could bear no other interpretation. However, at the end of about three years and a-half, the prisoner, without any apparent lawful reason, suddenly evanesced. This event greatly puzzled the community where it occurred; but after the discovery of the Second Law, there was no further mystery about it. The man’s absolute wretchedness at the forlorn prospect before him of everlasting life in jail, was quite sufficient, without his undergoing any other form of physical suffering, to work his deliverance. The negative balance of ten million units was reached in the three years and a half, whereupon he departed into invisibility under the natural operation of the law. It is obvious that the time which is required to make up the fixed number of metronomic units will depend very much on the degree of the intensity of the suffering undergone. Instances have occurred where a few days of exceedingly acute bodily torture have sufficed to raise the index to the required point. On the other hand, a man who is only suffering from chronic _ennui_ may endure for half a century; the balance against him rising by very slow degrees. It should also be remembered that when a man who has enjoyed a very happy life falls into adversity, he will certainly have much sorrow to endure, before he can hope for deliverance by this beneficent law; for the balance on the positive side (for joy), which will be high, must be reduced quite down to zero before the negative summation begins.