Gibbs' entropy increase mechanism solves some of the technical difficulties found in Boltzmann's H -theorem: The Gibbs entropy does not fluctuate nor does it exhibit Poincare recurrence, and so the increase in Gibbs entropy, when it occurs, is therefore irreversible as expected from thermodynamics. The Gibbs mechanism also applies equally well to systems with very few degrees of freedom, such as the single-particle system shown in the figure. To the extent that one accepts that the ensemble becomes blurred, then, Gibbs' approach is a cleaner proof of the second law of thermodynamics.