That's from Goodstein's "States of Matter" [1]. The next paragraph starts "Perhaps it will be wise to approach the subject cautiously".

That appears to be sufficient to allow non-fatal studying of statistical mechanics. Goodstein wrote that book 49 years ago and didn't die until a few months ago at the age of 85.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/States-Matter-Dover-Books-Physics/dp/...