The first question I answer in the affirmative, but the second belongs not so much to ordinary physics (let us call it orthophysics) as to... metaphy… - Ludwig Boltzmann

I take my stand before you as a reactionary, a survivor, who is still an enthusiast for the old and the classical as opposed to the modem.

I am conscious of being only an individual struggling weakly against the stream of time. But it still remains in my power to contribute in such a way that, when the theory of gases is again revived, not too much will have to be rediscovered. Thus in this book [this Part] I will now include the parts that are the most difficult and most subject to misunderstanding, and give (at least in outline) the most easily understood exposition of them.

[I]t is possible to calculate the state of the equilibrium of heat by finding the probability of the different possible states of the system.