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Poe_EurekaAProsePoem.txt
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eureka prose poem by edgar poe new-york geo putnam of late firm of wiley putnam broadway mdcccxlviii entered according to act of congress in the year by edgar poe in the clerk’s office of the district court for the southern district of new-york leavitt trow co prs ann-street with very profound respect this work is dedicated to alexander von humboldt preface to the few who love me and whom love to those who feel rather than to those who think to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only realities offer this book of truths not in its character of truth-teller but for the beauty that abounds in its truth constituting it true to these present the composition as an art-product alone let us say as romance or if be not urging too lofty claim as poem what here propound is true therefore it cannot die or if by any means it be now trodden down so that it die it will rise again to the life everlasting nevertheless it is as poem only that wish this work to be judged after am dead eureka an essay on the material and spiritual universe it is with humility really unassumed it is with sentiment even of awe that pen the opening sentence of this work for of all conceivable subjects approach the reader with the most solemn the most comprehensive the most difficult the most august what terms shall find sufficiently simple in their sublimity sufficiently sublime in their simplicity for the mere enunciation of my theme design to speak of the physical metaphysical and mathematical of the material and spiritual universe of its essence its origin its creation its present condition and its destiny shall be so rash moreover as to challenge the conclusions and thus in effect to question the sagacity of many of the greatest and most justly reverenced of men in the beginning let me as distinctly as possible announce not the theorem which hope to demonstrate for whatever the mathematicians may assert there is in this world at least no such thing as demonstration but the ruling idea which throughout this volume shall be continually endeavoring to suggest my general proposition then is this in the original unity of the first thing lies the secondary cause of all things with the germ of their inevitable annihilation in illustration of this idea propose to take such survey of the universe that the mind may be able really to receive and to perceive an individual impression he who from the top of ætna casts his eyes leisurely around is affected chiefly by the extent and diversity of the scene only by rapid whirling on his heel could he hope to comprehend the panorama in the sublimity of its oneness but as on the summit of ætna no man has thought of whirling on his heel so no man has ever taken into his brain the full uniqueness of the prospect and so again whatever considerations lie involved in this uniqueness have as yet no practical existence for mankind do not know treatise in which survey of the universe using the word in its most comprehensive and only legitimate acceptation is taken at all and it may be as well here to mention that by the term universe wherever employed without qualification in this essay mean to designate the utmost conceivable expanse of space with all things spiritual and material that can be imagined to exist within the compass of that expanse in speaking of what is ordinarily implied by the expression universe shall take phrase of limitation the universe of stars why this distinction is considered necessary will be seen in the sequel but even of treatises on the really limited although always assumed as the un_limited universe of stars know none in which survey even of this limited universe is so taken as to warrant deductions from its individuality the nearest approach to such work is made in the cosmos of alexander von humboldt he presents the subject however not in its individuality but in its generality his theme in its last result is the law of each portion of the merely physical universe as this law is related to the laws of every other portion of this merely physical universe his design is simply synœretical in word he discusses the universality of material relation and discloses to the eye of philosophy whatever inferences have hitherto lain hidden behind this universality but however admirable be the succinctness with which he has treated each particular point of his topic the mere multiplicity of these points occasions necessarily an amount of detail and thus an involution of idea which precludes all individuality of impression it seems to me that in aiming at this latter effect and through it at the consequences the conclusions the suggestions the speculations or if nothing better offer itself the mere guesses which may result from it we require something like mental gyration on the heel we need so rapid revolution of all things about the central point of sight that while the minutiæ vanish altogether even the more conspicuous objects become blended into one among the vanishing minutiæ in survey of this kind would be all exclusively terrestrial matters the earth would be considered in its planetary relations alone man in this view becomes mankind mankind member of the cosmical family of intelligences and now before proceeding to our subject proper let me beg the reader’s attention to an extract or two from somewhat remarkable letter which appears to have been found corked in bottle and floating on the mare tenebrarum an ocean well described by the nubian geographer ptolemy hephestion but little frequented in modern days unless by the transcendentalists and some other divers for crotchets the date of this letter confess surprises me even more particularly than its contents for it seems to have been written in the year two thousand eight hundred and forty-eight as for the passages am about to transcribe they fancy will speak for themselves do you know my dear friend says the writer addressing no doubt contemporary do you know that it is scarcely more than eight or nine hundred years ago since the metaphysicians first consented to relieve the people of the singular fancy that there exist but two practicable roads to truth believe it if you can it appears however that long long ago in the night of time there lived turkish philosopher called aries and surnamed tottle here possibly the letter-writer means aristotle the best names are wretchedly corrupted in two or three thousand years the fame of this great man depended mainly upon his demonstration that sneezing is natural provision by means of which over-profound thinkers are enabled to expel superfluous ideas through the nose but he obtained scarcely less valuable celebrity as the founder or at all events as the principal propagator of what was termed the de_ductive or priori philosophy he started with what he maintained to be axioms or self-evident truths and the now well understood fact that no truths are self evident really does not make in the slightest degree against his speculations it was sufficient for his purpose that the truths in question were evident at all from axioms he proceeded logically to results his most illustrious disciples were one tuclid geometrician meaning euclid and one kant dutchman the originator of that species of transcendentalism which with the change merely of for now bears his peculiar name well aries tottle flourished supreme until the advent of one hog surnamed the ettrick shepherd who preached an entirely different system which he called the posteriori or in_ductive his plan referred altogether to sensation he proceeded by observing analyzing and classifying facts instantiæ naturæ as they were somewhat affectedly called and arranging them into general laws in word while the mode of aries rested on noumena that of hog depended on phenomena and so great was the admiration excited by this latter system that at its first introduction aries fell into general disrepute finally however he recovered ground and was permitted to divide the empire of philosophy with his more modern rival the savans contenting themselves with proscribing all other competitors past present and to come putting an end to all controversy on the topic by the promulgation of median law to the effect that the aristotelian and baconian roads are and of right ought to be the solo possible avenues to knowledge baconian you must know my dear friend adds the letter-writer at this point was an adjective invented as equivalent to hog-ian and at the same time more dignified and euphonious now do assure you most positively proceeds the epistle that represent these matters fairly and you can easily understand how restrictions so absurd on their very face must have operated in those days to retard the progress of true science which makes its most important advances as all history will show by seemingly intuitive leaps these ancient ideas confined investigation to crawling and need not suggest to you that crawling among varieties of locomotion is very capital thing of its kind but because the tortoise is sure of foot for this reason must we clip the wings of the eagles for many centuries so great was the infatuation about hog especially that virtual stop was put to all thinking properly so called no man dared utter truth for which he felt himself indebted to his soul alone it mattered not whether the truth was even demonstrably such for the dogmatizing philosophers of that epoch regarded only the road by which it professed to have been attained the end with them was point of no moment whatever the means they vociferated let us look at the means and if on scrutiny of the means it was found to come neither under the category hog nor under the category aries which means ram why then the savans went no farther but calling the thinker fool and branding him theorist would never thenceforward have any thing to do either with him or with his truths now my dear friend continues the letter-writer it cannot be maintained that by the crawling system exclusively adopted men would arrive at the maximum amount of truth even in any long series of ages for the repression of imagination was an evil not to be counterbalanced even by absolute certainty in the snail processes but their certainty was very far from absolute the error of our progenitors was quite analogous with that of the wiseacre who fancies he must necessarily see an object the more distinctly the more closely he holds it to his eyes they blinded themselves too with the impalpable titillating scotch snuff of detail and thus the boasted facts of the hog-ites were by no means always facts point of little importance but for the assumption that they always were the vital taint however in baconianism its most lamentable fount of error lay in its tendency to throw power and consideration into the hands of merely perceptive men of those inter-tritonic minnows the microscopical savans the diggers and pedlers of minute facts for the most part in physical science facts all of which they retailed at the same price upon the highway their value depending it was supposed simply upon the fact of their fact without reference to their applicability or inapplicability in the development of those ultimate and only legitimate facts called law than the persons the letter goes on to say than the persons thus suddenly elevated by the hog-ian philosophy into station for which they were unfitted thus transferred from the sculleries into the parlors of science from its pantries into its pulpits than these individuals more intolerant more intolerable set of bigots and tyrants never existed on the face of the earth their creed their text and their sermon were alike the one word fact but for the most part even of this one word they knew not even the meaning on those who ventured to disturb their facts with the view of putting them in order and to use the disciples of hog had no mercy whatever all attempts at generalization were met at once by the words theoretical theory theorist all thought to be brief was very properly resented as personal affront to themselves cultivating the natural sciences to the exclusion of metaphysics the mathematics and logic many of these bacon-engendered philosophers one-idead one-sided and lame of leg were more wretchedly helpless more miserably ignorant in view of all the comprehensible objects of knowledge than the veriest unlettered hind who proves that he knows something at least in admitting that he knows absolutely nothing nor had our forefathers any better right to talk about certainty when pursuing in blind confidence the priori path of axioms or of the ram at innumerable points this path was scarcely as straight as ram’s horn the simple truth is that the aristotelians erected their castles upon basis far less reliable than air for no such things as axioms ever existed or can possibly exist at all this they must have been very blind indeed not to see or at least to suspect for even in their own day many of their long-admitted axioms had been abandoned ex nihilo nihil fit for example and thing cannot act where it is not and there cannot be antipodes and darkness cannot proceed from light these and numerous similar propositions formerly accepted without hesitation as axioms or undeniable truths were even at the period of which speak seen to be altogether untenable how absurd in these people then to persist in relying upon basis as immutable whose mutability had become so repeatedly manifest but even through evidence afforded by themselves against themselves it is easy to convict these priori reasoners of the grossest unreason it is easy to show the futility the impalpability of their axioms in general have now lying before me it will be observed that we still proceed with the letter have now lying before me book printed about thousand years ago pundit assures me that it is decidedly the cleverest ancient work on its topic which is logic the author who was much esteemed in his day was one miller or mill and we find it recorded of him as point of some importance that he rode mill-horse whom he called jeremy bentham but let us glance at the volume itself ah ability or inability to conceive says mr mill very properly is in no case to be received as criterion of axiomatic truth now that this is palpable truism no one in his senses will deny not to admit the proposition is to insinuate charge of variability in truth itself whose very title is synonym of the steadfast if ability to conceive be taken as criterion of truth then truth to david hume would very seldom be truth to joe and ninety-nine hundredths of what is undeniable in heaven would be demonstrable falsity upon earth the proposition of mr mill then is sustained will not grant it to be an axiom and this merely because am showing that no axioms exist but with distinction which could not have been cavilled at even by mr mill himself am ready to grant that if an axiom there be then the proposition of which we speak has the fullest right to be considered an axiom that no more absolute axiom is and consequently that any subsequent proposition which shall conflict with this one primarily advanced must be either falsity in itself that is to say no axiom or if admitted axiomatic must at once neutralize both itself and its predecessor and now by the logic of their own propounder let us proceed to test any one of the axioms propounded let us give mr mill the fairest of play we will bring the point to no ordinary issue we will select for investigation no common-place axiom no axiom of what not the less preposterously because only impliedly he terms his secondary class as if positive truth by definition could be either more or less positively truth we will select say no axiom of an unquestionability so questionable as is to be found in euclid we will not talk for example about such propositions as that two straight lines cannot enclose space or that the whole is greater than any one of its parts we will afford the logician every advantage we will come at once to proposition which he regards as the acme of the unquestionable as the quintessence of axiomatic undeniability here it is contradictions cannot both be true that is cannot cöexist in nature here mr mill means for instance and give the most forcible instance conceivable that tree must be either tree or not tree that it cannot be at the same time tree and not tree all which is quite reasonable of itself and will answer remarkably well as an axiom until we bring it into collation with an axiom insisted upon few pages before in other words words which have previously employed until we test it by the logic of its own propounder tree mr mill asserts must be either tree or not tree very well and now let me ask him why to this little query there is but one response defy any man living to invent second the sole answer is this because we find it impossible to conceive that tree can be any thing else than tree or not tree this repeat is mr mill’s sole answer he will not pretend to suggest another and yet by his own showing his answer is clearly no answer at all for has he not already required us to admit as an axiom that ability or inability to conceive is in no case to be taken as criterion of axiomatic truth thus all absolutely all his argumentation is at sea without rudder let it not be urged that an exception from the general rule is to be made in cases where the impossibility to conceive is so peculiarly great as when we are called upon to conceive tree both tree and not tree let no attempt say be made at urging this sotticism for in the first place there are no degrees of impossibility and thus no one impossible conception can be more peculiarly impossible than another impossible conception in the second place mr mill himself no doubt after thorough deliberation has most distinctly and most rationally excluded all opportunity for exception by the emphasis of his proposition that in no case is ability or inability to conceive to be taken as criterion of axiomatic truth in the third place even were exceptions admissible at all it remains to be shown how any exception is admissible here that tree can be both tree and not tree is an idea which the angels or the devils may entertain and which no doubt many an earthly bedlamite or transcendentalist does now do not quarrel with these ancients continues the letter-writer so much on account of the transparent frivolity of their logic which to be plain was baseless worthless and fantastic altogether as on account of their pompous and infatuate proscription of all other roads to truth than the two narrow and crooked paths the one of creeping and the other of crawling to which in their ignorant perversity they have dared to confine the soul the soul which loves nothing so well as to soar in those regions of illimitable intuition which are utterly incognizant of path by the bye my dear friend is it not an evidence of the mental slavery entailed upon those bigoted people by their hogs and rams that in spite of the eternal prating of their savans about roads to truth none of them fell even by accident into what we now so distinctly perceive to be the broadest the straightest and most available of all mere roads the great thoroughfare the majestic highway of the consistent is it not wonderful that they should have failed to deduce from the works of god the vitally momentous consideration that perfect consistency can be nothing but an absolute truth how plain how rapid our progress since the late announcement of this proposition by its means investigation has been taken out of the hands of the ground-moles and given as duty rather than as task to the true to the only true thinkers to the generally-educated men of ardent imagination these latter our keplers our laplaces speculate theorize these are the terms can you not fancy the shout of scorn with which they would be received by our progenitors were it possible for them to be looking over my shoulders as write the keplers repeat speculate theorize and their theories are merely corrected reduced sifted cleared little by little of their chaff of inconsistency until at length there stands apparent an unencumbered consistency consistency which the most stolid admit because it is consistency to be an absolute and an unquestionable truth have often thought my friend that it must have puzzled these dogmaticians of thousand years ago to determine even by which of their two boasted roads it is that the cryptographist attains the solution of the more complicate cyphers or by which of them champollion guided mankind to those important and innumerable truths which for so many centuries have lain entombed amid the phonetical hieroglyphics of egypt in especial would it not have given these bigots some trouble to determine by which of their two roads was reached the most momentous and sublime of all their truths the truth the fact of gravitation newton deduced it from the laws of kepler kepler admitted that these laws he guessed these laws whose investigation disclosed to the greatest of british astronomers that principle the basis of all existing physical principle in going behind which we enter at once the nebulous kingdom of metaphysics yes these vital laws kepler guessed that is to say he imagined them had he been asked to point out either the de_ductive or in_ductive route by which he attained them his reply might have been know nothing about routes but do know the machinery of the universe here it is grasped it with my soul reached it through mere dint of intuition alas poor ignorant old man could not any metaphysician have told him that what he called intuition was but the conviction resulting from de_ductions or in_ductions of which the processes were so shadowy as to have escaped his consciousness eluded his reason or bidden defiance to his capacity of expression how great pity it is that some moral philosopher had not enlightened him about all this how it would have comforted him on his death-bed to know that instead of having gone intuitively and thus unbecomingly he had in fact proceeded decorously and legitimately that is to say hog-ishly or at least ram-ishly into the vast halls where lay gleaming untended and hitherto untouched by mortal hand unseen by mortal eye the imperishable and priceless secrets of the universe yes kepler was essentially theorist but this title now of so much sanctity was in those ancient days designation of supreme contempt it is only now that men begin to appreciate that divine old man to sympathize with the prophetical and poetical rhapsody of his ever-memorable words for my part continues the unknown correspondent glow with sacred fire when even think of them and feel that shall never grow weary of their repetition in concluding this letter let me have the real pleasure of transcribing them once again care not whether my work be read now or by posterity can afford to wait century for readers when god himself has waited six thousand years for an observer triumph have stolen the golden secret of the egyptians will indulge my sacred fury here end my quotations from this very unaccountable and perhaps somewhat impertinent epistle and perhaps it would be folly to comment in any respect upon the chimerical not to say revolutionary fancies of the writer whoever he is fancies so radically at war with the well-considered and well-settled opinions of this age let us proceed then to our legitimate thesis the universe this thesis admits choice between two modes of discussion we may as_cend or de_scend beginning at our own point of view at the earth on which we stand we may pass to the other planets of our system thence to the sun thence to our system considered collectively and thence through other systems indefinitely outwards or commencing on high at some point as definite as we can make it or conceive it we may come down to the habitation of man usually that is to say in ordinary essays on astronomy the first of these two modes is with certain reservation adopted this for the obvious reason that astronomical facts merely and principles being the object that object is best fulfilled in stepping from the known because proximate gradually onward to the point where all certitude becomes lost in the remote for my present purpose however that of enabling the mind to take in as if from afar and at one glance distinct conception of the individual universe it is clear that descent to small from great to the outskirts from the centre if we could establish centre to the end from the beginning if we could fancy beginning would be the preferable course but for the difficulty if not impossibility of presenting in this course to the unastronomical picture at all comprehensible in regard to such considerations as are involved in quantity that is to say in number magnitude and distance now distinctness intelligibility at all points is primary feature in my general design on important topics it is better to be good deal prolix than even very little obscure but abstruseness is quality appertaining to no subject per se all are alike in facility of comprehension to him who approaches them by properly graduated steps it is merely because stepping-stone here and there is heedlessly left unsupplied in our road to the differential calculus that this latter is not altogether as simple thing as sonnet by mr solomon seesaw by way of admitting then no chance for misapprehension think it advisable to proceed as if even the more obvious facts of astronomy were unknown to the reader in combining the two modes of discussion to which have referred propose to avail myself of the advantages peculiar to each and very especially of the iteration in detail which will be unavoidable as consequence of the plan commencing with descent shall reserve for the return upwards those indispensable considerations of quantity to which allusion has already been made let us begin then at once with that merest of words infinity this like god spirit and some other expressions of which the equivalents exist in all languages is by no means the expression of an idea but of an effort at one it stands for the possible attempt at an impossible conception man needed term by which to point out the direction of this effort the cloud behind which lay forever invisible the object of this attempt word in fine was demanded by means of which one human being might put himself in relation at once with another human being and with certain tendency of the human intellect out of this demand arose the word infinity which is thus the representative but of the thought of thought as regards that infinity now considered the infinity of space we often hear it said that its idea is admitted by the mind is acquiesced in is entertained on account of the greater difficulty which attends the conception of limit but this is merely one of those phrases by which even profound thinkers time out of mind have occasionally taken pleasure in deceiving themselves the quibble lies concealed in the word difficulty the mind we are told entertains the idea of limitless through the greater difficulty which it finds in entertaining that of limited space now were the proposition but fairly put its absurdity would become transparent at once clearly there is no mere difficulty in the case the assertion intended if presented according to its intention and without sophistry would run thus the mind admits the idea of limitless through the greater impossibility of entertaining that of limited space it must be immediately seen that this is not question of two statements between whose respective credibilities or of two arguments between whose respective validities the reason is called upon to decide it is matter of two conceptions directly conflicting and each avowedly impossible one of which the intellect is supposed to be capable of entertaining on account of the greater impossibility of entertaining the other the choice is not made between two difficulties it is merely fancied to be made between two impossibilities now of the former there are degrees but of the latter none just as our impertinent letter-writer has already suggested task may be more or less difficult but it is either possible or not possible there are no gradations it might be more difficult to overthrow the andes than an ant-hill but it can be no more impossible to annihilate the matter of the one than the matter of the other man may jump ten feet with less difficulty than he can jump twenty but the impossibility of his leaping to the moon is not whit less than that of his leaping to the dog-star since all this is undeniable since the choice of the mind is to be made between impossibilities of conception since one impossibility cannot be greater than another and since thus one cannot be preferred to another the philosophers who not only maintain on the grounds mentioned man’s idea of infinity but on account of such supposititious idea infinity itself are plainly engaged in demonstrating one impossible thing to be possible by showing how it is that some one other thing is impossible too this it will be said is nonsense and perhaps it is indeed think it very capital nonsense but forego all claim to it as nonsense of mine the readiest mode however of displaying the fallacy of the philosophical argument on this question is by simply adverting to fact respecting it which has been hitherto quite overlooked the fact that the argument alluded to both proves and disproves its own proposition the mind is impelled say the theologians and others to admit first cause by the superior difficulty it experiences in conceiving cause beyond cause without end the quibble as before lies in the word difficulty but here what is it employed to sustain first cause and what is first cause an ultimate termination of causes and what is an ultimate termination of causes finity the finite thus the one quibble in two processes by god knows how many philosophers is made to support now finity and now infinity could it not be brought to support something besides as for the quibblers they at least are insupportable but to dismiss them what they prove in the one case is the identical nothing which they demonstrate in the other of course no one will suppose that here contend for the absolute impossibility of that which we attempt to convey in the word infinity my purpose is but to show the folly of endeavoring to prove infinity itself or even our conception of it by any such blundering ratiocination as that which is ordinarily employed nevertheless as an individual may be permitted to say that cannot conceive infinity and am convinced that no human being can mind not thoroughly self-conscious not accustomed to the introspective analysis of its own operations will it is true often deceive itself by supposing that it has entertained the conception of which we speak in the effort to entertain it we proceed step beyond step we fancy point still beyond point and so long as we continue the effort it may be said in fact that we are tending to the formation of the idea designed while the strength of the impression that we actually form or have formed it is in the ratio of the period during which we keep up the mental endeavor but it is in the act of discontinuing the endeavor of fulfilling as we think the idea of putting the finishing stroke as we suppose to the conception that we overthrow at once the whole fabric of our fancy by resting upon some one ultimate and therefore definite point this fact however we fail to perceive on account of the absolute coincidence in time between the settling down upon the ultimate point and the act of cessation in thinking in attempting on the other hand to frame the idea of limited space we merely converse the processes which involve the impossibility we believe in god we may or may not believe in finite or in infinite space but our belief in such cases is more properly designated as faith and is matter quite distinct from that belief proper from that intellectual belief which presupposes the mental conception the fact is that upon the enunciation of any one of that class of terms to which infinity belongs the class representing thoughts of thought he who has right to say that he thinks at all feels himself called upon not to entertain conception but simply to direct his mental vision toward some given point in the intellectual firmament where lies nebula never to be resolved to solve it indeed he makes no effort for with rapid instinct he comprehends not only the impossibility but as regards all human purposes the inessentiality of its solution he perceives that the deity has not designed it to be solved he sees at once that it lies out of the brain of man and even how if not exactly why it lies out of it there are people am aware who busying themselves in attempts at the unattainable acquire very easily by dint of the jargon they emit among those thinkers-that they-think with whom darkness and depth are synonymous kind of cuttle-fish reputation for profundity but the finest quality of thought is its self-cognizance and with some little equivocation it may be said that no fog of the mind can well be greater than that which extending to the very boundaries of the mental domain shuts out even these boundaries themselves from comprehension it will now be understood that in using the phrase infinity of space make no call upon the reader to entertain the impossible conception of an absolute infinity refer simply to the utmost conceivable expanse of space shadowy and fluctuating domain now shrinking now swelling in accordance with the vacillating energies of the imagination hitherto the universe of stars has always been considered as coincident with the universe proper as have defined it in the commencement of this discourse it has been always either directly or indirectly assumed at least since the dawn of intelligible astronomy that were it possible for us to attain any given point in space we should still find on all sides of us an interminable succession of stars this was the untenable idea of pascal when making perhaps the most successful attempt ever made at periphrasing the conception for which we struggle in the word universe it is sphere he says of which the centre is everywhere the circumference nowhere but although this intended definition is in fact no definition of the universe of stars we may accept it with some mental reservation as definition rigorous enough for all practical purposes of the universe proper that is to say of the universe of space this latter then let us regard as sphere of which the centre is everywhere the circumference nowhere in fact while we find it impossible to fancy an end to space we have no difficulty in picturing to ourselves any one of an infinity of beginnings as our starting-point then let us adopt the godhead of this godhead in itself he alone is not imbecile he alone is not impious who propounds nothing nous ne connaissons rien says the baron de bielfeld nous ne connaissons rien de la nature ou de l’essence de dieu pour savoir ce qu’il est il faut être dieu même we know absolutely nothing of the nature or essence of god in order to comprehend what he is we should have to be god ourselves we should have to be god ourselves with phrase so startling as this yet ringing in my ears nevertheless venture to demand if this our present ignorance of the deity is an ignorance to which the soul is everlastingly condemned by him however now at least the incomprehensible by him assuming him as spirit that is to say as not matter distinction which for all intelligible purposes will stand well instead of definition by him then existing as spirit let us content ourselves to-night with supposing to have been created or made out of nothing by dint of his volition at some point of space which we will take as centre at some period into which we do not pretend to inquire but at all events immensely remote by him then again let us suppose to have been created what this is vitally momentous epoch in our considerations what is it that we are justified that alone we are justified in supposing to have been primarily and solely created we have attained point where only intuition can aid us but now let me recur to the idea which have already suggested as that alone which we can properly entertain of intuition it is but the conviction arising from those inductions or deductions of which the processes are so shadowy as to escape our consciousness elude our reason or defy our capacity of expression with this understanding now assert that an intuition altogether irresistible although inexpressible forces me to the conclusion that what god originally created that that matter which by dint of his volition he first made from his spirit or from nihility could have been nothing but matter in its utmost conceivable state of what of simplicity this will be found the sole absolute assumption of my discourse use the word assumption in its ordinary sense yet maintain that even this my primary proposition is very very far indeed from being really mere assumption nothing was ever more certainly no human conclusion was ever in fact more regularly more rigorously de_duced but alas the processes lie out of the human analysis at all events are beyond the utterance of the human tongue let us now endeavor to conceive what matter must be when or if in its absolute extreme of simplicity here the reason flies at once to imparticularity to particle to one particle particle of one kind of one character of one nature of one size of one form particle therefore without form and void particle positively particle at all points particle absolutely unique individual undivided and not indivisible only because he who created it by dint of his will can by an infinitely less energetic exercise of the same will as matter of course divide it oneness then is all that predicate of the originally created matter but propose to show that this oneness is principle abundantly sufficient to account for the constitution the existing phænomena and the plainly inevitable annihilation of at least the material universe the willing into being the primordial particle has completed the act or more properly the conception of creation we now proceed to the ultimate purpose for which we are to suppose the particle created that is to say the ultimate purpose so far as our considerations yet enable us to see it the constitution of the universe from it the particle this constitution has been effected by forcing the originally and therefore normally one into the abnormal condition of many an action of this character implies rëaction diffusion from unity under the conditions involves tendency to return into unity tendency ineradicable until satisfied but on these points will speak more fully hereafter the assumption of absolute unity in the primordial particle includes that of infinite divisibility let us conceive the particle then to be only not totally exhausted by diffusion into space from the one particle as centre let us suppose to be irradiated spherically in all directions to immeasurable but still to definite distances in the previously vacant space certain inexpressibly great yet limited number of unimaginably yet not infinitely minute atoms now of these atoms thus diffused or upon diffusion what conditions are we permitted not to assume but to infer from consideration as well of their source as of the character of the design apparent in their diffusion unity being their source and difference from unity the character of the design manifested in their diffusion we are warranted in supposing this character to be at least generally preserved throughout the design and to form portion of the design itself that is to say we shall be warranted in conceiving continual differences at all points from the uniquity and simplicity of the origin but for these reasons shall we be justified in imagining the atoms heterogeneous dissimilar unequal and inequidistant more explicitly are we to consider no two atoms as at their diffusion of the same nature or of the same form or of the same size and after fulfilment of their diffusion into space is absolute inequidistance each from each to be understood of all of them in such arrangement under such conditions we most easily and immediately comprehend the subsequent most feasible carrying out to completion of any such design as that which have suggested the design of variety out of unity diversity out of sameness heterogeneity out of homogeneity complexity out of simplicity in word the utmost possible multiplicity of relation out of the emphatically irrelative one undoubtedly therefore we should be warranted in assuming all that has been mentioned but for the reflection first that supererogation is not presumable of any divine act and secondly that the object supposed in view appears as feasible when some of the conditions in question are dispensed with in the beginning as when all are understood immediately to exist mean to say that some are involved in the rest or so instantaneous consequence of them as to make the distinction inappreciable difference of size for example will at once be brought about through the tendency of one atom to second in preference to third on account of particular inequidistance which is to be comprehended as particular inequidistances between centres of quantity in neighboring atoms of different form matter not at all interfering with the generally-equable distribution of the atoms difference of kind too is easily conceived to be merely result of differences in size and form taken more or less conjointly in fact since the unity of the particle proper implies absolute homogeneity we cannot imagine the atoms at their diffusion differing in kind without imagining at the same time special exercise of the divine will at the emission of each atom for the purpose of effecting in each change of its essential nature so fantastic an idea is the less to be indulged as the object proposed is seen to be thoroughly attainable without such minute and elaborate interposition we perceive therefore upon the whole that it would be supererogatory and consequently unphilosophical to predicate of the atoms in view of their purposes any thing more than difference of form at their dispersion with particular inequidistance after it all other differences arising at once out of these in the very first processes of mass-constitution we thus establish the universe on purely geometrical basis of course it is by no means necessary to assume absolute difference even of form among all the atoms irradiated any more than absolute particular inequidistance of each from each we are required to conceive merely that no neighboring atoms are of similar form no atoms which can ever approximate until their inevitable rëunition at the end although the immediate and perpetual tendency of the disunited atoms to return into their normal unity is implied as have said in their abnormal diffusion still it is clear that this tendency will be without consequence tendency and no more until the diffusive energy in ceasing to be exerted shall leave it the tendency free to seek its satisfaction the divine act however being considered as determinate and discontinued on fulfilment of the diffusion we understand at once rëaction in other words satisfiable tendency of the disunited atoms to return into one but the diffusive energy being withdrawn and the rëaction having commenced in furtherance of the ultimate design that of the utmost possible relation this design is now in danger of being frustrated in detail by reason of that very tendency to return which is to effect its accomplishment in general multiplicity is the object but there is nothing to prevent proximate atoms from lapsing at once through the now satisfiable tendency before the fulfilment of any ends proposed in multiplicity into absolute oneness among themselves there is nothing to impede the aggregation of various unique masses at various points of space in other words nothing to interfere with the accumulation of various masses each absolutely one for the effectual and thorough completion of the general design we thus see the necessity for repulsion of limited capacity separative something which on withdrawal of the diffusive volition shall at the same time allow the approach and forbid the junction of the atoms suffering them infinitely to approximate while denying them positive contact in word having the power up to certain epoch of preventing their coalition but no ability to interfere with their coalescence in any respect or degree the repulsion already considered as so peculiarly limited in other regards must be understood let me repeat as having power to prevent absolute coalition only up to certain epoch unless we are to conceive that the appetite for unity among the atoms is doomed to be satisfied never unless we are to conceive that what had beginning is to have no end conception which cannot really be entertained however much we may talk or dream of entertaining it we are forced to conclude that the repulsive influence imagined will finally under pressure of the unitendency collectively applied but never and in no degree until on fulfilment of the divine purposes such collective application shall be naturally made yield to force which at that ultimate epoch shall be the superior force precisely to the extent required and thus permit the universal subsidence into the inevitable because original and therefore normal one the conditions here to be reconciled are difficult indeed we cannot even comprehend the possibility of their conciliation nevertheless the apparent impossibility is brilliantly suggestive that the repulsive something actually exists we see man neither employs nor knows force sufficient to bring two atoms into contact this is but the well-established proposition of the impenetrability of matter all experiment proves all philosophy admits it the design of the repulsion the necessity for its existence have endeavored to show but from all attempt at investigating its nature have religiously abstained this on account of an intuitive conviction that the principle at issue is strictly spiritual lies in recess impervious to our present understanding lies involved in consideration of what now in our human state is not to be considered in consideration of spirit in itself feel in word that here the god has interposed and here only because here and here only the knot demanded the interposition of the god in fact while the tendency of the diffused atoms to return into unity will be recognized at once as the principle of the newtonian gravity what have spoken of as repulsive influence prescribing limits to the immediate satisfaction of the tendency will be understood as that which we have been in the practice of designating now as heat now as magnetism now as electricity displaying our ignorance of its awful character in the vacillation of the phraseology with which we endeavor to circumscribe it calling it merely for the moment electricity we know that all experimental analysis of electricity has given as an ultimate result the principle or seeming principle heterogeneity only where things differ is electricity apparent and it is presumable that they never differ where it is not developed at least if not apparent now this result is in the fullest keeping with that which have reached unempirically the design of the repulsive influence have maintained to be that of preventing immediate unity among the diffused atoms and these atoms are represented as different each from each difference is their character their essentiality just as no-difference was the essentiality of their source when we say then that an attempt to bring any two of these atoms together would induce an effort on the part of the repulsive influence to prevent the contact we may as well use the strictly convertible sentence that an attempt to bring together any two differences will result in development of electricity all existing bodies of course are composed of these atoms in proximate contact and are therefore to be considered as mere assemblages of more or fewer differences and the resistance made by the repulsive spirit on bringing together any two such assemblages would be in the ratio of the two sums of the differences in each an expression which when reduced is equivalent to this the amount of electricity developed on the approximation of two bodies is proportional to the difference between the respective sums of the atoms of which the bodies are composed that no two bodies are absolutely alike is simple corollary from all that has been here said electricity therefore existing always is developed whenever any bodies but manifested only when bodies of appreciable difference are brought into approximation to electricity so for the present continuing to call it we may not be wrong in referring the various physical appearances of light heat and magnetism but far less shall we be liable to err in attributing to this strictly spiritual principle the more important phænomena of vitality consciousness and thought on this topic however need pause here merely to suggest that these phænomena whether observed generally or in detail seem to proceed at least in the ratio of the heterogeneous discarding now the two equivocal terms gravitation and electricity let us adopt the more definite expressions attraction and repulsion the former is the body the latter the soul the one is the material the other the spiritual principle of the universe no other principles exist all phænomena are referable to one or to the other or to both combined so rigorously is this the case so thoroughly demonstrable is it that attraction and repulsion are the sole properties through which we perceive the universe in other words by which matter is manifested to mind that for all merely argumentative purposes we are fully justified in assuming that matter exists only as attraction and repulsion that attraction and repulsion are matter there being no conceivable case in which we may not employ the term matter and the terms attraction and repulsion taken together as equivalent and therefore convertible expressions in logic said just now that what have described as the tendency of the diffused atoms to return into their original unity would be understood as the principle of the newtonian law of gravity and in fact there can be little difficulty in such an understanding if we look at the newtonian gravity in merely general view as force impelling matter to seek matter that is to say when we pay no attention to the known modus operandi of the newtonian force the general coincidence satisfies us but upon looking closely we see in detail much that appears in_coincident and much in regard to which no coincidence at least is established for example the newtonian gravity when we think of it in certain moods does not seem to be tendency to oneness at all but rather tendency of all bodies in all directions phrase apparently expressive of tendency to diffusion here then is an in_coincidence again when we reflect on the mathematical law governing the newtonian tendency we see clearly that no coincidence has been made good in respect of the modus operandi at least between gravitation as known to exist and that seemingly simple and direct tendency which have assumed in fact have attained point at which it will be advisable to strengthen my position by reversing my processes so far we have gone on priori from an abstract consideration of simplicity as that quality most likely to have characterized the original action of god let us now see whether the established facts of the newtonian gravitation may not afford us posteriori some legitimate inductions what does the newtonian law declare that all bodies attract each other with forces proportional to their quantities of matter and inversely proportional to the squares of their distances purposely have here given in the first place the vulgar version of the law and confess that in this as in most other vulgar versions of great truths we find little of suggestive character let us now adopt more philosophical phraseology every atom of every body attracts every other atom both of its own and of every other body with force which varies inversely as the squares of the distances between the attracting and attracted atom here indeed flood of suggestion bursts upon the mind but let us see distinctly what it was that newton proved according to the grossly irrational definitions of proof prescribed by the metaphysical schools he was forced to content himself with showing how thoroughly the motions of an imaginary universe composed of attracting and attracted atoms obedient to the law he announced coincide with those of the actually existing universe so far as it comes under our observation this was the amount of his demonstration that is to say this was the amount of it according to the conventional cant of the philosophies his successes added proof multiplied by proof such proof as sound intellect admits but the demonstration of the law itself persist the metaphysicians had not been strengthened in any degree ocular physical proof however of attraction here upon earth in accordance with the newtonian theory was at length much to the satisfaction of some intellectual grovellers afforded this proof arose collaterally and incidentally as nearly all important truths have arisen out of an attempt to ascertain the mean density of the earth in the famous maskelyne cavendish and bailly experiments for this purpose the attraction of the mass of mountain was seen felt measured and found to be mathematically consistent with the immortal theory of the british astronomer but in spite of this confirmation of that which needed none in spite of the so-called corroboration of the theory by the so-called ocular and physical proof in spite of the character of this corroboration the ideas which even really philosophical men cannot help imbibing of gravity and especially the ideas of it which ordinary men get and contentedly maintain are seen to have been derived for the most part from consideration of the principle as they find it developed merely in the planet upon which they stand now to what does so partial consideration tend to what species of error does it give rise on the earth we see and feel only that gravity impels all bodies towards the centre of the earth no man in the common walks of life could be made to see or to feel anything else could be made to perceive that anything anywhere has perpetual gravitating tendency in any other direction than to the centre of the earth yet with an exception hereafter to be specified it is fact that every earthly thing not to speak now of every heavenly thing has tendency not only to the earth’s centre but in every conceivable direction besides now although the philosophic cannot be said to err with the vulgar in this matter they nevertheless permit themselves to be influenced without knowing it by the sentiment of the vulgar idea although the pagan fables are not believed says bryant in his very erudite mythology yet we forget ourselves continually and make inferences from them as from existing realities mean to assert that the merely sensitive perception of gravity as we experience it on earth beguiles mankind into the fancy of concentralization or especiality respecting it has been continually biasing towards this fancy even the mightiest intellects perpetually although imperceptibly leading them away from the real characteristics of the principle thus preventing them up to this date from ever getting glimpse of that vital truth which lies in diametrically opposite direction behind the principle’s essential characteristics those not of concentralization or especiality but of universality and diffusion this vital truth is unity as the source of the phænomenon let me now repeat the definition of gravity every atom of every body attracts every other atom both of its own and of every other body with force which varies inversely as the squares of the distances of the attracting and attracted atom here let the reader pause with me for moment in contemplation of the miraculous of the ineffable of the altogether unimaginable complexity of relation involved in the fact that each atom attracts every other atom involved merely in this fact of the attraction without reference to the law or mode in which the attraction is manifested involved merely in the fact that each atom attracts every other atom at all in wilderness of atoms so numerous that those which go to the composition of cannon-ball exceed probably in mere point of number all the stars which go to the constitution of the universe had we discovered simply that each atom tended to some one favorite point to some especially attractive atom we should still have fallen upon discovery which in itself would have sufficed to overwhelm the mind but what is it that we are actually called upon to comprehend that each atom attracts sympathizes with the most delicate movements of every other atom and with each and with all at the same time and forever and according to determinate law of which the complexity even considered by itself solely is utterly beyond the grasp of the imagination of man if propose to ascertain the influence of one mote in sunbeam upon its neighboring mote cannot accomplish my purpose without first counting and weighing all the atoms in the universe and defining the precise positions of all at one particular moment if venture to displace by even the billionth part of an inch the microscopical speck of dust which lies now upon the point of my finger what is the character of that act upon which have adventured have done deed which shakes the moon in her path which causes the sun to be no longer the sun and which alters forever the destiny of the multitudinous myriads of stars that roll and glow in the majestic presence of their creator these ideas conceptions such as these unthoughtlike thoughts soul-reveries rather than conclusions or even considerations of the intellect ideas repeat such as these are such as we can alone hope profitably to entertain in any effort at grasping the great principle attraction but now with such ideas with such vision of the marvellous complexity of attraction fairly in his mind let any person competent of thought on such topics as these set himself to the task of imagining principle for the phænomena observed condition from which they sprang does not so evident brotherhood among the atoms point to common parentage does not sympathy so omniprevalent so ineradicable and so thoroughly irrespective suggest common paternity as its source does not one extreme impel the reason to the other does not the infinitude of division refer to the utterness of individuality does not the entireness of the complex hint at the perfection of the simple it is not that the atoms as we see them are divided or that they are complex in their relations but that they are inconceivably divided and unutterably complex it is the extremeness of the conditions to which now allude rather than to the conditions themselves in word is it not because the atoms were at some remote epoch of time even more than together is it not because originally and therefore normally they were one that now in all circumstances at all points in all directions by all modes of approach in all relations and through all conditions they struggle back to this absolutely this irrelatively this unconditionally one some person may here demand why since it is to the one that the atoms struggle back do we not find and define attraction merely general tendency to centre why in especial do not your atoms the atoms which you describe as having been irradiated from centre proceed at once rectilinearly back to the central point of their origin reply that they do as will be distinctly shown but that the cause of their so doing is quite irrespective of the centre as such they all tend rectilinearly towards centre because of the sphereicity with which they have been irradiated into space each atom forming one of generally uniform globe of atoms finds more atoms in the direction of the centre of course than in any other and in that direction therefore is impelled but is not thus impelled because the centre is the point of its origin it is not to any point that the atoms are allied it is not any locality either in the concrete or in the abstract to which suppose them bound nothing like location was conceived as their origin their source lies in the principle unity this is their lost parent this they seek always immediately in all directions wherever it is even partially to be found thus appeasing in some measure the ineradicable tendency while on the way to its absolute satisfaction in the end it follows from all this that any principle which shall be adequate to account for the law or modus operandi of the attractive force in general will account for this law in particular that is to say any principle which will show why the atoms should tend to their general centre of irradiation with forces inversely proportional to the squares of the distances will be admitted as satisfactorily accounting at the same time for the tendency according to the same law of these atoms each to each for the tendency to the centre is merely the tendency each to each and not any tendency to centre as such thus it will be seen also that the establishment of my propositions would involve no necessity of modification in the terms of the newtonian definition of gravity which declares that each atom attracts each other atom and so forth and declares this merely but always under the supposition that what propose be in the end admitted it seems clear that some error might occasionally be avoided in the future processes of science were more ample phraseology adopted for instance each atom tends to every other atom with force the general result being tendency of all with similar force to general centre the reversal of our processes has thus brought us to an identical result but while in the one process intuition was the starting-point in the other it was the goal in commencing the former journey could only say that with an irresistible intuition felt simplicity to have been the characteristic of the original action of god in ending the latter can only declare that with an irresistible intuition perceive unity to have been the source of the observed phænomena of the newtonian gravitation thus according to the schools prove nothing so be it design but to suggest and to convince through the suggestion am proudly aware that there exist many of the most profound and cautiously discriminative human intellects which cannot help being abundantly content with my suggestions to these intellects as to my own there is no mathematical demonstration which could bring the least additional true proof of the great truth which have advanced the truth of original unity as the source as the principle of the universal phænomena for my part am not so sure that speak and see am not so sure that my heart beats and that my soul lives of the rising of to-morrow sun probability that as yet lies in the future do not pretend to be one thousandth part as sure as am of the irretrievably by-gone fact that all things and all thoughts of things with all their ineffable multiplicity of relation sprang at once into being from the primordial and irrelative one referring to the newtonian gravity dr nichol the eloquent author of the architecture of the heavens says in truth we have no reason to suppose this great law as now revealed to be the ultimate or simplest and therefore the universal and all-comprehensive form of great ordinance the mode in which its intensity diminishes with the element of distance has not the aspect of an ultimate principle which always assumes the simplicity and self-evidence of those axioms which constitute the basis of geometry now it is quite true that ultimate principles in the common understanding of the words always assume the simplicity of geometrical axioms as for self-evidence there is no such thing but these principles are clearly not ultimate in other terms what we are in the habit of calling principles are no principles properly speaking since there can be but one principle the volition of god we have no right to assume then from what we observe in rules that we choose foolishly to name principles anything at all in respect to the characteristics of principle proper the ultimate principles of which dr nichol speaks as having geometrical simplicity may and do have this geometrical turn as being part and parcel of vast geometrical system and thus system of simplicity itself in which nevertheless the truly ultimate principle is as we know the consummation of the complex that is to say of the unintelligible for is it not the spiritual capacity of god quoted dr nichol’s remark however not so much to question its philosophy as by way of calling attention to the fact that while all men have admitted some principle as existing behind the law of gravity no attempt has been yet made to point out what this principle in particular is if we except perhaps occasional fantastic efforts at referring it to magnetism or mesmerism or swedenborgianism or transcendentalism or some other equally delicious ism of the same species and invariably patronized by one and the same species of people the great mind of newton while boldly grasping the law itself shrank from the principle of the law the more fluent and comprehensive at least if not the more patient and profound sagacity of laplace had not the courage to attack it but hesitation on the part of these two astronomers it is perhaps not so very difficult to understand they as well as all the first class of mathematicians were mathematicians solely their intellect at least had firmly-pronounced mathematico-physical tone what lay not distinctly within the domain of physics or of mathematics seemed to them either non-entity or shadow nevertheless we may well wonder that leibnitz who was marked exception to the general rule in these respects and whose mental temperament was singular admixture of the mathematical with the physico-metaphysical did not at once investigate and establish the point at issue either newton or laplace seeking principle and discovering none physical would have rested contentedly in the conclusion that there was absolutely none but it is almost impossible to fancy of leibnitz that having exhausted in his search the physical dominions he would not have stepped at once boldly and hopefully amid his old familiar haunts in the kingdom of metaphysics here indeed it is clear that he must have adventured in search of the treasure that he did not find it after all was perhaps because his fairy guide imagination was not sufficiently well-grown or well-educated to direct him aright observed just now that in fact there had been certain vague attempts at referring gravity to some very uncertain isms these attempts however although considered bold and justly so considered looked no farther than to the generality the merest generality of the newtonian law its modus operandi has never to my knowledge been approached in the way of an effort at explanation it is therefore with no unwarranted fear of being taken for madman at the outset and before can bring my propositions fairly to the eye of those who alone are competent to decide upon them that here declare the modus operandi of the law of gravity to be an exceedingly simple and perfectly explicable thing that is to say when we make our advances towards it in just gradations and in the true direction when we regard it from the proper point of view whether we reach the idea of absolute unity as the source of all things from consideration of simplicity as the most probable characteristic of the original action of god whether we arrive at it from an inspection of the universality of relation in the gravitating phænomena or whether we attain it as result of the mutual corroboration afforded by both processes still the idea itself if entertained at all is entertained in inseparable connection with another idea that of the condition of the universe of stars as we now perceive it that is to say condition of immeasurable diffusion through space now connection between these two ideas unity and diffusion cannot be established unless through the entertainment of third idea that of irradiation absolute unity being taken as centre then the existing universe of stars is the result of irradiation from that centre now the laws of irradiation are known they are part and parcel of the sphere they belong to the class of indisputable geometrical properties we say of them they are true they are evident to demand why they are true would be to demand why the axioms are true upon which their demonstration is based nothing is demonstrable strictly speaking but if anything be then the properties the laws in question are demonstrated but these laws what do they declare irradiation how by what steps does it proceed outwardly from centre from luminous centre light issues by irradiation and the quantities of light received upon any given plane supposed to be shifting its position so as to be now nearer the centre and now farther from it will be diminished in the same proportion as the squares of the distances of the plane from the luminous body are increased and will be increased in the same proportion as these squares are diminished the expression of the law may be thus generalized the number of light-particles or if the phrase be preferred the number of light-impressions received upon the shifting plane will be inversely proportional with the squares of the distances of the plane generalizing yet again we may say that the diffusion the scattering the irradiation in word is directly proportional with the squares of the distances illustration for example at the distance from the luminous centre certain number of particles are so diffused as to occupy the surface then at double the distance that is to say at they will be so much farther diffused as to occupy four such surfaces at treble the distance or at they will be so much farther separated as to occupy nine such surfaces while at quadruple the distance or at they will have become so scattered as to spread themselves over sixteen such surfaces and so on forever in saying generally that the irradiation proceeds in direct proportion with the squares of the distances we use the term irradiation to express the degree of the diffusion as we proceed outwardly from the centre conversing the idea and employing the word concentralization to express the degree of the drawing together as we come back toward the centre from an outward position we may say that concentralization proceeds inversely as the squares of the distances in other words we have reached the conclusion that on the hypothesis that matter was originally irradiated from centre and is now returning to it the concentralization in the return proceeds exactly as we know the force of gravitation to proceed now here if we could be permitted to assume that concentralization exactly represented the force of the tendency to the centre that the one was exactly proportional to the other and that the two proceeded together we should have shown all that is required the sole difficulty existing then is to establish direct proportion between concentralization and the force of concentralization and this is done of course if we establish such proportion between irradiation and the force of irradiation very slight inspection of the heavens assures us that the stars have certain general uniformity equability or equidistance of distribution through that region of space in which collectively and in roughly globular form they are situated this species of very general rather than absolute equability being in full keeping with my deduction of inequidistance within certain limits among the originally diffused atoms as corollary from the evident design of infinite complexity of relation out of irrelation started it will be remembered with the idea of generally uniform but particularly un_uniform distribution of the atoms an idea repeat which an inspection of the stars as they exist confirms but even in the merely general equability of distribution as regards the atoms there appears difficulty which no doubt has already suggested itself to those among my readers who have borne in mind that suppose this equability of distribution effected through irradiation from centre the very first glance at the idea irradiation forces us to the entertainment of the hitherto unseparated and seemingly inseparable idea of agglomeration about centre with dispersion as we recede from it the idea in word of in_equability of distribution in respect to the matter irradiated now have elsewhere observed that it is by just such difficulties as the one now in question such roughnesses such peculiarities such protuberances above the plane of the ordinary that reason feels her way if at all in her search for the true by the difficulty the peculiarity now presented leap at once to the secret secret which might never have attained but for the peculiarity and the inferences which in its mere character of peculiarity it affords me murders in the rue morgue the process of thought at this point may be thus roughly sketched say to myself unity as have explained it is truth feel it diffusion is truth see it irradiation by which alone these two truths are reconciled is consequent truth perceive it equability of diffusion first deduced priori and then corroborated by the inspection of phænomena is also truth fully admit it so far all is clear around me there are no clouds behind which the secret the great secret of the gravitating modus operandi can possibly lie hidden but this secret lies hereabouts most assuredly and were there but cloud in view should be driven to suspicion of that cloud and now just as say this there actually comes cloud into view this cloud is the seeming impossibility of reconciling my truth irradiation with my truth equability of diffusion say now behind this seeming impossibility is to be found what desire do not say real impossibility for invincible faith in my truths assures me that it is mere difficulty after all but go on to say with unflinching confidence that when this difficulty shall be solved we shall find wrapped up in the process of solution the key to the secret at which we aim moreover feel that we shall discover but one possible solution of the difficulty this for the reason that were there two one would be supererogatory would be fruitless would be empty would contain no key since no duplicate key can be needed to any secret of nature and now let us see our usual notions of irradiation in fact all our distinct notions of it are caught merely from the process as we see it exemplified in light here there is continuous outpouring of ray-streams and with force which we have at least no right to suppose varies at all now in any such irradiation as this continuous and of unvarying force the regions nearer the centre must inevitably be always more crowded with the irradiated matter than the regions more remote but have assumed no such irradiation as this assumed no continuous irradiation and for the simple reason that such an assumption would have involved first the necessity of entertaining conception which have shown no man can entertain and which as will more fully explain hereafter all observation of the firmament refutes the conception of the absolute infinity of the universe of stars and would have involved secondly the impossibility of understanding rëaction that is gravitation as existing now since while an act is continued no rëaction of course can take place my assumption then or rather my inevitable deduction from just premises was that of determinate irradiation one finally dis_continued let me now describe the sole possible mode in which it is conceivable that matter could have been diffused through space so as to fulfil the conditions at once of irradiation and of generally equable distribution for convenience of illustration let us imagine in the first place hollow sphere of glass or of anything else occupying the space throughout which the universal matter is to be thus equally diffused by means of irradiation from the absolute irrelative unconditional particle placed in the centre of the sphere now certain exertion of the diffusive power presumed to be the divine volition in other words certain force whose measure is the quantity of matter that is to say the number of atoms emitted emits by irradiation this certain number of atoms forcing them in all directions outwardly from the centre their proximity to each other diminishing as they proceed until finally they are distributed loosely over the interior surface of the sphere when these atoms have attained this position or while proceeding to attain it second and inferior exercise of the same force or second and inferior force of the same character emits in the same manner that is to say by irradiation as before second stratum of atoms which proceeds to deposit itself upon the first the number of atoms in this case as in the former being of course the measure of the force which emitted them in other words the force being precisely adapted to the purpose it effects the force and the number of atoms sent out by the force being directly proportional when this second stratum has reached its destined position or while approaching it third still inferior exertion of the force or third inferior force of similar character the number of atoms emitted being in all cases the measure of the force proceeds to deposit third stratum upon the second and so on until these concentric strata growing gradually less and less come down at length to the central point and the diffusive matter simultaneously with the diffusive force is exhausted we have now the sphere filled through means of irradiation with atoms equably diffused the two necessary conditions those of irradiation and of equable diffusion are satisfied and by the sole process in which the possibility of their simultaneous satisfaction is conceivable for this reason confidently expect to find lurking in the present condition of the atoms as distributed throughout the sphere the secret of which am in search the all-important principle of the modus operandi of the newtonian law let us examine then the actual condition of the atoms they lie in series of concentric strata they are equably diffused throughout the sphere they have been irradiated into these states the atoms being equably distributed the greater the superficial extent of any of these concentric strata or spheres the more atoms will lie upon it in other words the number of atoms lying upon the surface of any one of the concentric spheres is directly proportional with the extent of that surface but in any series of concentric spheres the surfaces are directly proportional with the squares of the distances from the centre succinctly the surfaces of spheres are as the squares of their radii therefore the number of atoms in any stratum is directly proportional with the square of that stratum’s distance from the centre but the number of atoms in any stratum is the measure of the force which emitted that stratum that is to say is directly proportional with the force therefore the force which irradiated any stratum is directly proportional with the square of that stratum’s distance from the centre or generally the force of the irradiation has been directly proportional with the squares of the distances now rëaction as far as we know anything of it is action conversed the general principle of gravity being in the first place understood as the rëaction of an act as the expression of desire on the part of matter while existing in state of diffusion to return into the unity whence it was diffused and in the second place the mind being called upon to determine the character of the desire the manner in which it would naturally be manifested in other words being called upon to conceive probable law or modus operandi for the return could not well help arriving at the conclusion that this law of return would be precisely the converse of the law of departure that such would be the case any one at least would be abundantly justified in taking for granted until such time as some person should suggest something like plausible reason why it should not be the case until such period as law of return shall be imagined which the intellect can consider as preferable matter then irradiated into space with force varying as the squares of the distances might priori be supposed to return towards its centre of irradiation with force varying inversely as the squares of the distances and have already shown that any principle which will explain why the atoms should tend according to any law to the general centre must be admitted as satisfactorily explaining at the same time why according to the same law they should tend each to each for in fact the tendency to the general centre is not to centre as such but because of its being point in tending towards which each atom tends most directly to its real and essential centre unity the absolute and final union of all page the consideration here involved presents to my own mind no embarrassment whatever but this fact does not blind me to the possibility of its being obscure to those who may have been less in the habit of dealing with abstractions and upon the whole it may be as well to look at the matter from one or two other points of view the absolute irrelative particle primarily created by the volition of god must have been in condition of positive normality or rightfulness for wrongfulness implies relation right is positive wrong is negative is merely the negation of right as cold is the negation of heat darkness of light that thing may be wrong it is necessary that there be some other thing in relation to which it is wrong some condition which it fails to satisfy some law which it violates some being whom it aggrieves if there be no such being law or condition in respect to which the thing is wrong and still more especially if no beings laws or conditions exist at all then the thing can_not be wrong and consequently must be right any deviation from normality involves tendency to return into it difference from the normal from the right from the just can be understood as effected only by the overcoming difficulty and if the force which overcomes the difficulty be not infinitely continued the ineradicable tendency to return will at length be permitted to act for its own satisfaction upon withdrawal of the force the tendency acts this is the principle of rëaction as the inevitable consequence of finite action employing phraseology of which the seeming affectation will be pardoned for its expressiveness we may say that rëaction is the return from the condition of as it is and ought not to be into the condition of as it was originally and therefore ought to be and let me add here that the absolute force of rëaction would no doubt be always found in direct proportion with the reality the truth the absoluteness of the originality if ever it were possible to measure this latter and consequently the greatest of all conceivable reactions must be that produced by the tendency which we now discuss the tendency to return into the absolutely original into the supremely primitive gravity then must be the strongest of forces an idea reached priori and abundantly confirmed by induction what use make of the idea will be seen in the sequel the atoms now having been diffused from their normal condition of unity seek to return to what not to any particular point certainly for it is clear that if upon the diffusion the whole universe of matter had been projected collectively to distance from the point of irradiation the atomic tendency to the general centre of the sphere would not have been disturbed in the least the atoms would not have sought the point in absolute space from which they were originally impelled it is merely the condition and not the point or locality at which this condition took its rise that these atoms seek to re-establish it is merely that condition which is their normality that they desire but they seek centre it will be said and centre is point true but they seek this point not in its character of point for were the whole sphere moved from its position they would seek equally the centre and the centre then would be new point but because it so happens on account of the form in which they collectively exist that of the sphere that only through the point in question the sphere’s centre they can attain their true object unity in the direction of the centre each atom perceives more atoms than in any other direction each atom is impelled towards the centre because along the straight line joining it and the centre and passing on to the circumference beyond there lie greater number of atoms than along any other straight line greater number of objects that seek it the individual atom greater number of tendencies to unity greater number of satisfactions for its own tendency to unity in word because in the direction of the centre lies the utmost possibility of satisfaction generally for its own individual appetite to be brief the condition unity is all that is really sought and if the atoms seem to seek the centre of the sphere it is only impliedly through implication because such centre happens to imply to include or to involve the only essential centre unity but on account of this implication or involution there is no possibility of practically separating the tendency to unity in the abstract from the tendency to the concrete centre thus the tendency of the atoms to the general centre is to all practical intents and for all logical purposes the tendency each to each and the tendency each to each is the tendency to the centre and the one tendency may be assumed as the other whatever will apply to the one must be thoroughly applicable to the other and in conclusion whatever principle will satisfactorily explain the one cannot be questioned as an explanation of the other in looking carefully around me for rational objection to what have advanced am able to discover nothing but of that class of objections usually urged by the doubters for doubt’s sake very readily perceive three and proceed to dispose of them in order it may be said first the proof that the force of irradiation in the case described is directly proportional to the squares of the distances depends upon an unwarranted assumption that of the number of atoms in each stratum being the measure of the force with which they are emitted reply not only that am warranted in such assumption but that should be utterly un_warranted in any other what assume is simply that an effect is the measure of its cause that every exercise of the divine will will be proportional to that which demands the exertion that the means of omnipotence or of omniscience will be exactly adapted to its purposes neither can deficiency nor an excess of cause bring to pass any effect had the force which irradiated any stratum to its position been either more or less than was needed for the purpose that is to say not directly proportional to the purpose then to its position that stratum could not have been irradiated had the force which with view to general equability of distribution emitted the proper number of atoms for each stratum been not directly proportional to the number then the number would not have been the number demanded for the equable distribution the second supposable objection is somewhat better entitled to an answer it is an admitted principle in dynamics that every body on receiving an impulse or disposition to move will move onward in straight line in the direction imparted by the impelling force until deflected or stopped by some other force how then it may be asked is my first or external stratum of atoms to be understood as discontinuing their movement at the circumference of the imaginary glass sphere when no second force of more than an imaginary character appears to account for the discontinuance reply that the objection in this case actually does arise out of an unwarranted assumption on the part of the objector the assumption of principle in dynamics at an epoch when no principles in anything exist use the word principle of course in the objector’s understanding of the word in the beginning we can admit indeed we can comprehend but one first cause the truly ultimate principle the volition of god the primary act that of irradiation from unity must have been independent of all that which the world now calls principle because all that we so designate is but consequence of the rëaction of that primary act say primary act for the creation of the absolute material particle is more properly to be regarded as conception than as an act in the ordinary meaning of the term thus we must regard the primary act as an act for the establishment of what we now call principles but this primary act itself is to be considered as continuous volition the thought of god is to be understood as originating the diffusion as proceeding with it as regulating it and finally as being withdrawn from it upon its completion then commences rëaction and through rëaction principle as we employ the word it will be advisable however to limit the application of this word to the two immediate results of the discontinuance of the divine volition that is to the two agents attraction and repulsion every other natural agent depends either more or less immediately upon these two and therefore would be more conveniently designated as sub principle it may be objected thirdly that in general the peculiar mode of distribution which have suggested for the atoms is an hypothesis and nothing more now am aware that the word hypothesis is ponderous sledge-hammer grasped immediately if not lifted by all very diminutive thinkers upon the first appearance of any proposition wearing in any particular the garb of theory but hypothesis cannot be wielded here to any good purpose even by those who succeed in lifting it little men or great maintain first that only in the mode described is it conceivable that matter could have been diffused so as to fulfil at once the conditions of irradiation and of generally equable distribution maintain secondly that these conditions themselves have been imposed upon me as necessities in train of ratiocination as rigorously logical as that which establishes any demonstration in euclid and maintain thirdly that even if the charge of hypothesis were as fully sustained as it is in fact unsustained and untenable still the validity and indisputability of my result would not even in the slightest particular be disturbed to explain the newtonian gravity law of nature law whose existence as such no one out of bedlam questions law whose admission as such enables us to account for nine-tenths of the universal phænomena law which merely because it does so enable us to account for these phænomena we are perfectly willing without reference to any other considerations to admit and cannot help admitting as law law nevertheless of which neither the principle nor the modus operandi of the principle has ever yet been traced by the human analysis law in short which neither in its detail nor in its generality has been found susceptible of explanation at all is at length seen to be at every point thoroughly explicable provided only we yield our assent to what to an hypothesis why if an hypothesis if the merest hypothesis if an hypothesis for whose assumption as in the case of that pure hypothesis the newtonian law itself no shadow of priori reason could be assigned if an hypothesis even so absolute as all this implies would enable us to perceive principle for the newtonian law would enable us to understand as satisfied conditions so miraculously so ineffably complex and seemingly irreconcileable as those involved in the relations of which gravity tells us what rational being could so expose his fatuity as to call even this absolute hypothesis an hypothesis any longer unless indeed he were to persist in so calling it with the understanding that he did so simply for the sake of consistency in words but what is the true state of our present case what is the fact not only that it is not an hypothesis which we are required to adopt in order to admit the principle at issue explained but that it is logical conclusion which we are requested not to adopt if we can avoid it which we are simply invited to deny if we can conclusion of so accurate logicality that to dispute it would be the effort to doubt its validity beyond our power conclusion from which we see no mode of escape turn as we will result which confronts us either at the end of an in_ductive journey from the phænomena of the very law discussed or at the close of de_ductive career from the most rigorously simple of all conceivable assumptions the assumption in word of simplicity itself and if here for the mere sake of cavilling it be urged that although my starting-point is as assert the assumption of absolute simplicity yet simplicity considered merely in itself is no axiom and that only deductions from axioms are indisputable it is thus that reply every other science than logic is the science of certain concrete relations arithmetic for example is the science of the relations of number geometry of the relations of form mathematics in general of the relations of quantity in general of whatever can be increased or diminished logic however is the science of relation in the abstract of absolute relation of relation considered solely in itself an axiom in any particular science other than logic is thus merely proposition announcing certain concrete relations which seem to be too obvious for dispute as when we say for instance that the whole is greater than its part and thus again the principle of the logical axiom in other words of an axiom in the abstract is simply obviousness of relation now it is clear not only that what is obvious to one mind may not be obvious to another but that what is obvious to one mind at one epoch may be anything but obvious at another epoch to the same mind it is clear moreover that what to-day is obvious even to the majority of mankind or to the majority of the best intellects of mankind may to-morrow be to either majority more or less obvious or in no respect obvious at all it is seen then that the axiomatic principle itself is susceptible of variation and of course that axioms are susceptible of similar change being mutable the truths which grow out of them are necessarily mutable too or in other words are never to be positively depended upon as truths at all since truth and immutability are one it will now be readily understood that no axiomatic idea no idea founded in the fluctuating principle obviousness of relation can possibly be so secure so reliable basis for any structure erected by the reason as that idea whatever it is wherever we can find it or if it be practicable to find it anywhere which is ir_relative altogether which not only presents to the understanding no obviousness of relation either greater or less to be considered but subjects the intellect not in the slightest degree to the necessity of even looking at any relation at all if such an idea be not what we too heedlessly term an axiom it is at least preferable as logical basis to any axiom ever propounded or to all imaginable axioms combined and such precisely is the idea with which my deductive process so thoroughly corroborated by induction commences my particle proper is but absolute irrelation to sum up what has been here advanced as starting point have taken it for granted simply that the beginning had nothing behind it or before it that it was beginning in fact that it was beginning and nothing different from beginning in short that this beginning was that which it was if this be mere assumption then mere assumption let it be to conclude this branch of the subject am fully warranted in announcing that the law which we have been in the habit of calling gravity exists on account of matter’s having been irradiated at its origin atomically into limited sphere of space from one individual unconditional irrelative and absolute particle proper by the sole process in which it was possible to satisfy at the same time the two conditions irradiation and generally-equable distribution throughout the sphere that is to say by force varying in direct proportion with the squares of the distances between the irradiated atoms respectively and the particular centre of irradiation limited sphere sphere is necessarily limited prefer tautology to chance of misconception have already given my reasons for presuming matter to have been diffused by determinate rather than by continuous or infinitely continued force supposing continuous force we should be unable in the first place to comprehend rëaction at all and we should be required in the second place to entertain the impossible conception of an infinite extension of matter not to dwell upon the impossibility of the conception the infinite extension of matter is an idea which if not positively disproved is at least not in any respect warranted by telescopic observation of the stars point to be explained more fully hereafter and this empirical reason for believing in the original finity of matter is unempirically confirmed for example admitting for the moment the possibility of understanding space filled with the irradiated atoms that is to say admitting as well as we can for argument’s sake that the succession of the irradiated atoms had absolutely no end then it is abundantly clear that even when the volition of god had been withdrawn from them and thus the tendency to return into unity permitted abstractly to be satisfied this permission would have been nugatory and invalid practically valueless and of no effect whatever no rëaction could have taken place no movement toward unity could have been made no law of gravity could have obtained to explain grant the abstract tendency of any one atom to any one other as the inevitable result of diffusion from the normal unity or what is the same thing admit any given atom as proposing to move in any given direction it is clear that since there is an infinity of atoms on all sides of the atom proposing to move it never can actually move toward the satisfaction of its tendency in the direction given on account of precisely equal and counterbalancing tendency in the direction diametrically opposite in other words exactly as many tendencies to unity are behind the hesitating atom as before it for it is mere sotticism to say that one infinite line is longer or shorter than another infinite line or that one infinite number is greater or less than another number that is infinite thus the atom in question must remain stationary forever under the impossible circumstances which we have been merely endeavoring to conceive for argument’s sake there could have been no aggregation of matter no stars no worlds nothing but perpetually atomic and inconsequential universe in fact view it as we will the whole idea of unlimited matter is not only untenable but impossible and preposterous with the understanding of sphere of atoms however we perceive at once satisfiable tendency to union the general result of the tendency each to each being tendency of all to the centre the general process of condensation or approximation commences immediately by common and simultaneous movement on withdrawal of the divine volition the individual approximations or coalescences not cöalitions of atom with atom being subject to almost infinite variations of time degree and condition on account of the excessive multiplicity of relation arising from the differences of form assumed as characterizing the atoms at the moment of their quitting the particle proper as well as from the subsequent particular inequidistance each from each what wish to impress upon the reader is the certainty of there arising at once on withdrawal of the diffusive force or divine volition out of the condition of the atoms as described at innumerable points throughout the universal sphere innumerable agglomerations characterized by innumerable specific differences of form size essential nature and distance each from each the development of repulsion electricity must have commenced of course with the very earliest particular efforts at unity and must have proceeded constantly in the ratio of coalescence that is to say in that of condensation or again of heterogeneity thus the two principles proper attraction and repulsion the material and the spiritual accompany each other in the strictest fellowship forever thus the body and the soul walk hand in hand if now in fancy we select any one of the agglomerations considered as in their primary stages throughout the universal sphere and suppose this incipient agglomeration to be taking place at that point where the centre of our sun exists or rather where it did exist originally for the sun is perpetually shifting his position we shall find ourselves met and borne onward for time at least by the most magnificent of theories by the nebular cosmogony of laplace although cosmogony is far too comprehensive term for what he really discusses which is the constitution of our solar system alone of one among the myriad of similar systems which make up the universe proper that universal sphere that all-inclusive and absolute kosmos which forms the subject of my present discourse confining himself to an obviously limited region that of our solar system with its comparatively immediate vicinity and merely assuming that is to say assuming without any basis whatever either deductive or inductive much of what have been just endeavoring to place upon more stable basis than assumption assuming for example matter as diffused without pretending to account for the diffusion throughout and somewhat beyond the space occupied by our system diffused in state of heterogeneous nebulosity and obedient to that omniprevalent law of gravity at whose principle he ventured to make no guess assuming all this which is quite true although he had no logical right to its assumption laplace has shown dynamically and mathematically that the results in such case necessarily ensuing are those and those alone which we find manifested in the actually existing condition of the system itself to explain let us conceive that particular agglomeration of which we have just spoken the one at the point designated by our sun’s centre to have so far proceeded that vast quantity of nebulous matter has here assumed roughly globular form its centre being of course coincident with what is now or rather was originally the centre of our sun and its periphery extending out beyond the orbit of neptune the most remote of our planets in other words let us suppose the diameter of this rough sphere to be some millions of miles for ages this mass of matter has been undergoing condensation until at length it has become reduced into the bulk we imagine having proceeded gradually of course from its atomic and imperceptible state into what we understand of visible palpable or otherwise appreciable nebulosity now the condition of this mass implies rotation about an imaginary axis rotation which commencing with the absolute incipiency of the aggregation has been ever since acquiring velocity the very first two atoms which met approaching each other from points not diametrically opposite would in rushing partially past each other form nucleus for the rotary movement described how this would increase in velocity is readily seen the two atoms are joined by others an aggregation is formed the mass continues to rotate while condensing but any atom at the circumference has of course more rapid motion than one nearer the centre the outer atom however with its superior velocity approaches the centre carrying this superior velocity with it as it goes thus every atom proceeding inwardly and finally attaching itself to the condensed centre adds something to the original velocity of that centre that is to say increases the rotary movement of the mass let us now suppose this mass so far condensed that it occupies precisely the space circumscribed by the orbit of neptune and that the velocity with which the surface of the mass moves in the general rotation is precisely that velocity with which neptune now revolves about the sun at this epoch then we are to understand that the constantly increasing centrifugal force having gotten the better of the non-increasing centripetal loosened and separated the exterior and least condensed stratum or few of the exterior and least condensed strata at the equator of the sphere where the tangential velocity predominated so that these strata formed about the main body an independent ring encircling the equatorial regions just as the exterior portion thrown off by excessive velocity of rotation from grindstone would form ring about the grindstone but for the solidity of the superficial material were this caoutchouc or anything similar in consistency precisely the phænomenon describe would be presented the ring thus whirled from the nebulous mass revolved of course as separate ring with just that velocity with which while the surface of the mass it rotated in the meantime condensation still proceeding the interval between the discharged ring and the main body continued to increase until the former was left at vast distance from the latter now admitting the ring to have possessed by some seemingly accidental arrangement of its heterogeneous materials constitution nearly uniform then this ring as such would never have ceased revolving about its primary but as might have been anticipated there appears to have been enough irregularity in the disposition of the materials to make them cluster about centres of superior solidity and thus the annular form was destroyed no doubt the band was soon broken up into several portions and one of these portions predominating in mass absorbed the others into itself the whole settling spherically into planet that this latter as planet continued the revolutionary movement which characterized it while ring is sufficiently clear and that it took upon itself also an additional movement in its new condition of sphere is readily explained the ring being understood as yet unbroken we see that its exterior while the whole revolves about the parent body moves more rapidly than its interior when the rupture occurred then some portion in each fragment must have been moving with greater velocity than the others the superior movement prevailing must have whirled each fragment round that is to say have caused it to rotate and the direction of the rotation must of course have been the direction of the revolution whence it arose all the fragments having become subject to the rotation described must in coalescing have imparted it to the one planet constituted by their coalescence this planet was neptune its material continuing to undergo condensation and the centrifugal force generated in its rotation getting at length the better of the centripetal as before in the case of the parent orb ring was whirled also from the equatorial surface of this planet this ring having been ununiform in its constitution was broken up and its several fragments being absorbed by the most massive were collectively spherified into moon subsequently the operation was repeated and second moon was the result we thus account for the planet neptune with the two satellites which accompany him laplace assumed his nebulosity heterogeneous merely that he might be thus enabled to account for the breaking up of the rings for had the nebulosity been homogeneous they would not have broken reach the same result heterogeneity of the secondary masses immediately resulting from the atoms purely from an priori consideration of their general design relation in throwing off ring from its equator the sun re-established that equilibrium between its centripetal and centrifugal forces which had been disturbed in the process of condensation but as this condensation still proceeded the equilibrium was again immediately disturbed through the increase of rotation by the time the mass had so far shrunk that it occupied spherical space just that circumscribed by the orbit of uranus we are to understand that the centrifugal force had so far obtained the ascendency that new relief was needed second equatorial band was consequently thrown off which proving ununiform was broken up as before in the case of neptune the fragments settling into the planet uranus the velocity of whose actual revolution about the sun indicates of course the rotary speed of that sun’s equatorial surface at the moment of the separation uranus adopting rotation from the collective rotations of the fragments composing it as previously explained now threw off ring after ring each of which becoming broken up settled into moon three moons at different epochs having been formed in this manner by the rupture and general spherification of as many distinct ununiform rings by the time the sun had shrunk until it occupied space just that circumscribed by the orbit of saturn the balance we are to suppose between its centripetal and centrifugal forces had again become so far disturbed through increase of rotary velocity the result of condensation that third effort at equilibrium became necessary and an annular band was therefore whirled off as twice before which on rupture through ununiformity became consolidated into the planet saturn this latter threw off in the first place seven uniform bands which on rupture were spherified respectively into as many moons but subsequently it appears to have discharged at three distinct but not very distant epochs three rings whose equability of constitution was by apparent accident so considerable as to present no occasion for their rupture thus they continue to revolve as rings use the phrase apparent accident for of accident in the ordinary sense there was of course nothing the term is properly applied only to the result of indistinguishable or not immediately traceable law shrinking still farther until it occupied just the space circumscribed by the orbit of jupiter the sun now found need of farther effort to restore the counterbalance of its two forces continually disarranged in the still continued increase of rotation jupiter accordingly was now thrown off passing from the annular to the planetary condition and on attaining this latter threw off in its turn at four different epochs four rings which finally resolved themselves into so many moons still shrinking until its sphere occupied just the space defined by the orbit of the asteroids the sun now discarded ring which appears to have had eight centres of superior solidity and on breaking up to have separated into eight fragments no one of which so far predominated in mass as to absorb the others all therefore as distinct although comparatively small planets proceeded to revolve in orbits whose distances each from each may be considered as in some degree the measure of the force which drove them asunder all the orbits nevertheless being so closely coincident as to admit of our calling them one in view of the other planetary orbits continuing to shrink the sun on becoming so small as just to fill the orbit of mars now discharged this planet of course by the process repeatedly described having no moon however mars could have thrown off no ring in fact an epoch had now arrived in the career of the parent body the centre of the system the de_crease of its nebulosity which is the in_crease of its density and which again is the de_crease of its condensation out of which latter arose the constant disturbance of equilibrium must by this period have attained point at which the efforts for restoration would have been more and more ineffectual just in proportion as they were less frequently needed thus the processes of which we have been speaking would everywhere show signs of exhaustion in the planets first and secondly in the original mass we must not fall into the error of supposing the decrease of interval observed among the planets as we approach the sun to be in any respect indicative of an increase of frequency in the periods at which they were discarded exactly the converse is to be understood the longest interval of time must have occurred between the discharges of the two interior the shortest between those of the two exterior planets the decrease of the interval of space is nevertheless the measure of the density and thus inversely of the condensation of the sun throughout the processes detailed having shrunk however so far as to fill only the orbit of our earth the parent sphere whirled from itself still one other body the earth in condition so nebulous as to admit of this body’s discarding in its turn yet another which is our moon but here terminated the lunar formations finally subsiding to the orbits first of venus and then of mercury the sun discarded these two interior planets neither of which has given birth to any moon thus from his original bulk or to speak more accurately from the condition in which we first considered him from partially spherified nebular mass certainly much more than millions of miles in diameter the great central orb and origin of our solar-planetary lunar system has gradually descended by condensation in obedience to the law of gravity to globe only miles in diameter but it by no means follows either that its condensation is yet complete or that it may not still possess the capacity of whirling from itself another planet have here given in outline of course but still with all the detail necessary for distinctness view of the nebular theory as its author himself conceived it from whatever point we regard it we shall find it beautifully true it is by far too beautiful indeed not to possess truth as its essentiality and here am very profoundly serious in what say in the revolution of the satellites of uranus there does appear something seemingly inconsistent with the assumptions of laplace but that one inconsistency can invalidate theory constructed from million of intricate consistencies is fancy fit only for the fantastic in prophecying confidently that the apparent anomaly to which refer will sooner or later be found one of the strongest possible corroborations of the general hypothesis pretend to no especial spirit of divination it is matter which the only difficulty seems not to foresee am prepared to show that the anomalous revolution of the satellites of uranus is simply perspective anomaly arising from the inclination of the axis of the planet the bodies whirled off in the processes described would exchange it has been seen the superficial rotation of the orbs whence they originated for revolution of equal velocity about these orbs as distant centres and the revolution thus engendered must proceed so long as the centripetal force or that with which the discarded body gravitates toward its parent is neither greater nor less than that by which it was discarded that is than the centrifugal or far more properly than the tangential velocity from the unity however of the origin of these two forces we might have expected to find them as they are found the one accurately counterbalancing the other it has been shown indeed that the act of whirling-off is in every case merely an act for the preservation of the counterbalance after referring however the centripetal force to the omniprevalent law of gravity it has been the fashion with astronomical treatises to seek beyond the limits of mere nature that is to say of secondary cause solution of the phænomenon of tangential velocity this latter they attribute directly to first cause to god the force which carries stellar body around its primary they assert to have originated in an impulse given immediately by the finger this is the childish phraseology employed by the finger of deity itself in this view the planets fully formed are conceived to have been hurled from the divine hand to position in the vicinity of the suns with an impetus mathematically adapted to the masses or attractive capacities of the suns themselves an idea so grossly unphilosophical although so supinely adopted could have arisen only from the difficulty of otherwise accounting for the absolutely accurate adaptation each to each of two forces so seemingly independent one of the other as are the gravitating and tangential but it should be remembered that for long time the coincidence between the moon’s rotation and her sidereal revolution two matters seemingly far more independent than those now considered was looked upon as positively miraculous and there was strong disposition even among astronomers to attribute the marvel to the direct and continual agency of god who in this case it was said had found it necessary to interpose specially among his general laws set of subsidiary regulations for the purpose of forever concealing from mortal eyes the glories or perhaps the horrors of the other side of the moon of that mysterious hemisphere which has always avoided and must perpetually avoid the telescopic scrutiny of mankind the advance of science however soon demonstrated what to the philosophical instinct needed no demonstration that the one movement is but portion something more even than consequence of the other for my part have no patience with fantasies at once so timorous so idle and so awkward they belong to the veriest cowardice of thought that nature and the god of nature are distinct no thinking being can long doubt by the former we imply merely the laws of the latter but with the very idea of god omnipotent omniscient we entertain also the idea of the infallibility of his laws with him there being neither past nor future with him all being now do we not insult him in supposing his laws so contrived as not to provide for every possible contingency or rather what idea can we have of any possible contingency except that it is at once result and manifestation of his laws he who divesting himself of prejudice shall have the rare courage to think absolutely for himself cannot fail to arrive in the end at the condensation of laws into law cannot fail of reaching the conclusion that each law of nature is dependent at all points upon all other laws and that all are but consequences of one primary exercise of the divine volition such is the principle of the cosmogony which with all necessary deference here venture to suggest and to maintain in this view it will be seen that dismissing as frivolous and even impious the fancy of the tangential force having been imparted to the planets immediately by the finger of god consider this force as originating in the rotation of the stars this rotation as brought about by the in-rushing of the primary atoms towards their respective centres of aggregation this in-rushing as the consequence of the law of gravity this law as but the mode in which is necessarily manifested the tendency of the atoms to return into imparticularity this tendency to return as but the inevitable rëaction of the first and most sublime of acts that act by which god self-existing and alone existing became all things at once through dint of his volition while all things were thus constituted portion of god the radical assumptions of this discourse suggest to me and in fact imply certain important modifications of the nebular theory as given by laplace the efforts of the repulsive power have considered as made for the purpose of preventing contact among the atoms and thus as made in the ratio of the approach to contact that is to say in the ratio of condensation in other words electricity with its involute phænomena heat light and magnetism is to be understood as proceeding as condensation proceeds and of course inversely as density proceeds or the cessation to condense thus the sun in the process of its aggregation must soon in developing repulsion have become excessively heated perhaps incandescent and we can perceive how the operation of discarding its rings must have been materially assisted by the slight incrustation of its surface consequent on cooling any common experiment shows us how readily crust of the character suggested is separated through heterogeneity from the interior mass but on every successive rejection of the crust the new surface would appear incandescent as before and the period at which it would again become so far encrusted as to be readily loosened and discharged may well be imagined as exactly coincident with that at which new effort would be needed by the whole mass to restore the equilibrium of its two forces disarranged through condensation in other words by the time the electric influence repulsion has prepared the surface for rejection we are to understand that the gravitating influence attraction is precisely ready to reject it here then as everywhere the body and the soul walk hand in hand see page these ideas are empirically confirmed at all points since condensation can never in any body be considered as absolutely at an end we are warranted in anticipating that whenever we have an opportunity of testing the matter we shall find indications of resident luminosity in all the stellar bodies moons and planets as well as suns that our moon is strongly self-luminous we see at her every total eclipse when if not so she would disappear on the dark part of the satellite too during her phases we often observe flashes like our own auroras and that these latter with our various other so-called electrical phænomena without reference to any more steady radiance must give our earth certain appearance of luminosity to an inhabitant of the moon is quite evident in fact we should regard all the phænomena referred to as mere manifestations in different moods and degrees of the earth’s feebly-continued condensation if my views are tenable we should be prepared to find the newer planets that is to say those nearer the sun more luminous than those older and more remote and the extreme brilliancy of venus on whose dark portions during her phases the auroras are frequently visible does not seem to be altogether accounted for by her mere proximity to the central orb she is no doubt vividly self-luminous although less so than mercury while the luminosity of neptune may be comparatively nothing admitting what have urged it is clear that from the moment of the sun’s discarding ring there must be continuous diminution both of his heat and light on account of the continuous encrustation of his surface and that period would arrive the period immediately previous to new discharge when very material decrease of both light and heat must become apparent now we know that tokens of such changes are distinctly recognizable on the melville islands to adduce merely one out of hundred examples we find traces of ultra-tropical vegetation of plants that never could have flourished without immensely more light and heat than are at present afforded by our sun to any portion of the surface of the earth is such vegetation referable to an epoch immediately subsequent to the whirling-off of venus at this epoch must have occurred to us our greatest access of solar influence and in fact this influence must then have attained its maximum leaving out of view of course the period when the earth itself was discarded the period of its mere organization again we know that there exist non-luminous suns that is to say suns whose existence we determine through the movements of others but whose luminosity is not sufficient to impress us are these suns invisible merely on account of the length of time elapsed since their discharge of planet and yet again may we not at least in certain cases account for the sudden appearances of suns where none had been previously suspected by the hypothesis that having rolled with encrusted surfaces throughout the few thousand years of our astronomical history each of these suns in whirling off new secondary has at length been enabled to display the glories of its still incandescent interior to the well-ascertained fact of the proportional increase of heat as we descend into the earth need of course do nothing more than refer it comes in the strongest possible corroboration of all that have said on the topic now at issue in speaking not long ago of the repulsive or electrical influence remarked that the important phænomena of vitality consciousness and thought whether we observe them generally or in detail seem to proceed at least in the ratio of the heterogeneous mentioned too that would recur to the suggestion and this is the proper point at which to do so looking at the matter first in detail we perceive that not merely the manifestation of vitality but its importance consequence and elevation of character keep pace very closely with the heterogeneity or complexity of the animal structure looking at the question now in its generality and referring to the first movements of the atoms towards mass-constitution we find that heterogeneousness brought about directly through condensation is proportional with it forever we thus reach the proposition that the importance of the development of the terrestrial vitality proceeds equably with the terrestrial condensation page now this is in precise accordance with what we know of the succession of animals on the earth as it has proceeded in its condensation superior and still superior races have appeared is it impossible that the successive geological revolutions which have attended at least if not immediately caused these successive elevations of vitalic character is it improbable that these revolutions have themselves been produced by the successive planetary discharges from the sun in other words by the successive variations in the solar influence on the earth were this idea tenable we should not be unwarranted in the fancy that the discharge of yet new planet interior to mercury may give rise to yet new modification of the terrestrial surface modification from which may spring race both materially and spiritually superior to man these thoughts impress me with all the force of truth but throw them out of course merely in their obvious character of suggestion the nebular theory of laplace has lately received far more confirmation than it needed at the hands of the philosopher compte these two have thus together shown not to be sure that matter at any period actually existed as described in state of nebular diffusion but that admitting it so to have existed throughout the space and much beyond the space now occupied by our solar system and to have commenced movement towards centre it must gradually have assumed the various forms and motions which are now seen in that system to obtain demonstration such as this dynamical and mathematical demonstration as far as demonstration can be unquestionable and unquestioned unless indeed by that unprofitable and disreputable tribe the professional questioners the mere madmen who deny the newtonian law of gravity on which the results of the french mathematicians are based demonstration say such as this would to most intellects be conclusive and confess that it is so to mine of the validity of the nebular hypothesis upon which the demonstration depends that the demonstration does not prove the hypothesis according to the common understanding of the word proof admit of course to show that certain existing results that certain established facts may be even mathematically accounted for by the assumption of certain hypothesis is by no means to establish the hypothesis itself in other words to show that certain data being given certain existing result might or even must have ensued will fail to prove that this result did ensue from the data until such time as it shall be also shown that there are and can be no other data from which the result in question might equally have ensued but in the case now discussed although all must admit the deficiency of what we are in the habit of terming proof still there are many intellects and those of the loftiest order to which no proof could bring one iota of additional conviction without going into details which might impinge upon the cloud-land of metaphysics may as well here observe that the force of conviction in cases such as this will always with the right-thinking be proportional to the amount of complexity intervening between the hypothesis and the result to be less abstract the greatness of the complexity found existing among cosmical conditions by rendering great in the same proportion the difficulty of accounting for all these conditions at once strengthens also in the same proportion our faith in that hypothesis which does in such manner satisfactorily account for them and as no complexity can well be conceived greater than that of the astronomical conditions so no conviction can be stronger to my mind at least than that with which am impressed by an hypothesis that not only reconciles these conditions with mathematical accuracy and reduces them into consistent and intelligible whole but is at the same time the sole hypothesis by means of which the human intellect has been ever enabled to account for them at all most unfounded opinion has become latterly current in gossiping and even in scientific circles the opinion that the so-called nebular cosmogony has been overthrown this fancy has arisen from the report of late observations made among what hitherto have been termed the nebulæ through the large telescope of cincinnati and the world-renowned instrument of lord rosse certain spots in the firmament which presented even to the most powerful of the old telescopes the appearance of nebulosity or haze had been regarded for long time as confirming the theory of laplace they were looked upon as stars in that very process of condensation which have been attempting to describe thus it was supposed that we had ocular evidence an evidence by the way which has always been found very questionable of the truth of the hypothesis and although certain telescopic improvements every now and then enabled us to perceive that spot here and there which we had been classing among the nebulæ was in fact but cluster of stars deriving its nebular character only from its immensity of distance still it was thought that no doubt could exist as to the actual nebulosity of numerous other masses the strong-holds of the nebulists bidding defiance to every effort at segregation of these latter the most interesting was the great nebulæ in the constellation orion but this with innumerable other mis-called nebulæ when viewed through the magnificent modern telescopes has become resolved into simple collection of stars now this fact has been very generally understood as conclusive against the nebular hypothesis of laplace and on announcement of the discoveries in question the most enthusiastic defender and most eloquent popularizer of the theory dr nichol went so far as to admit the necessity of abandoning an idea which had formed the material of his most praiseworthy book views of the architecture of the heavens letter purporting to be from dr nichol to friend in america went the rounds of our newspapers about two years ago think admitting the necessity to which refer in subsequent lecture however dr appears in some manner to have gotten the better of the necessity and does not quite renounce the theory although he seems to wish that he could sneer at it as purely hypothetical one what else was the law of gravity before the maskelyne experiments and who questioned the law of gravity even then many of my readers will no doubt be inclined to say that the result of these new investigations has at least strong tendency to overthrow the hypothesis while some of them more thoughtful will suggest that although the theory is by no means disproved through the segregation of the particular nebulæ alluded to still failure to segregate them with such telescopes might well have been understood as triumphant corroboration of the theory and this latter class will be surprised perhaps to hear me say that even with them disagree if the propositions of this discourse have been comprehended it will be seen that in my view failure to segregate the nebulæ would have tended to the refutation rather than to the confirmation of the nebular hypothesis let me explain the newtonian law of gravity we may of course assume as demonstrated this law it will be remembered have referred to the rëaction of the first divine act to the rëaction of an exercise of the divine volition temporarily overcoming difficulty this difficulty is that of forcing the normal into the abnormal of impelling that whose originality and therefore whose rightful condition was one to take upon itself the wrongful condition of many it is only by conceiving this difficulty as temporarily overcome that we can comprehend rëaction there could have been no rëaction had the act been infinitely continued so long as the act lasted no rëaction of course could commence in other words no gravitation could take place for we have considered the one as but the manifestation of the other but gravitation has taken place therefore the act of creation has ceased and gravitation has long ago taken place therefore the act of creation has long ago ceased we can no more expect then to observe the primary processes of creation and to these primary processes the condition of nebulosity has already been explained to belong through what we know of the propagation of light we have direct proof that the more remote of the stars have existed under the forms in which we now see them for an inconceivable number of years so far back at least then as the period when these stars underwent condensation must have been the epoch at which the mass-constitutive processes began that we may conceive these processes then as still going on in the case of certain nebulæ while in all other cases we find them thoroughly at an end we are forced into assumptions for which we have really no basis whatever we have to thrust in again upon the revolting reason the blasphemous idea of special interposition we have to suppose that in the particular instances of these nebulæ an unerring god found it necessary to introduce certain supplementary regulations certain improvements of the general law certain retouchings and emendations in word which had the effect of deferring the completion of these individual stars for centuries of centuries beyond the æra during which all the other stellar bodies had time not only to be fully constituted but to grow hoary with an unspeakable old age of course it will be immediately objected that since the light by which we recognize the nebulæ now must be merely that which left their surfaces vast number of years ago the processes at present observed or supposed to be observed are in fact not processes now actually going on but the phantoms of processes completed long in the past just as maintain all these mass-constitutive processes must have been to this reply that neither is the now-observed condition of the condensed stars their actual condition but condition completed long in the past so that my argument drawn from the relative condition of the stars and the nebulæ is in no manner disturbed moreover those who maintain the existence of nebulæ do not refer the nebulosity to extreme distance they declare it real and not merely perspective nebulosity that we may conceive indeed nebular mass as visible at all we must conceive it as very near us in comparison with the condensed stars brought into view by the modern telescopes in maintaining the appearances in question then to be really nebulous we maintain their comparative vicinity to our point of view thus their condition as we see them now must be referred to an epoch far less remote than that to which we may refer the now-observed condition of at least the majority of the stars in word should astronomy ever demonstrate nebula in the sense at present intended should consider the nebular cosmogony not indeed as corroborated by the demonstration but as thereby irretrievably overthrown by way however of rendering unto cæsar no more than the things that are cæsar’s let me here remark that the assumption of the hypothesis which led him to so glorious result seems to have been suggested to laplace in great measure by misconception by the very misconception of which we have just been speaking by the generally prevalent misunderstanding of the character of the nebulæ so mis-named these he supposed to be in reality what their designation implies the fact is this great man had very properly an inferior faith in his own merely perceptive powers in respect therefore to the actual existence of nebulæ an existence so confidently maintained by his telescopic contemporaries he depended less upon what he saw than upon what he heard it will be seen that the only valid objections to his theory are those made to its hypothesis as such to what suggested it not to what it suggests to its propositions rather than to its results his most unwarranted assumption was that of giving the atoms movement towards centre in the very face of his evident understanding that these atoms in unlimited succession extended throughout the universal space have already shown that under such circumstances there could have occurred no movement at all and laplace consequently assumed one on no more philosophical ground than that something of the kind was necessary for the establishment of what he intended to establish his original idea seems to have been compound of the true epicurean atoms with the false nebulæ of his contemporaries and thus his theory presents us with the singular anomaly of absolute truth deduced as mathematical result from hybrid datum of ancient imagination intertangled with modern inacumen laplace’s real strength lay in fact in an almost miraculous mathematical instinct on this he relied and in no instance did it fail or deceive him in the case of the nebular cosmogony it led him blindfolded through labyrinth of error into one of the most luminous and stupendous temples of truth let us now fancy for the moment that the ring first thrown off by the sun that is to say the ring whose breaking-up constituted neptune did not in fact break up until the throwing-off of the ring out of which uranus arose that this latter ring again remained perfect until the discharge of that out of which sprang saturn that this latter again remained entire until the discharge of that from which originated jupiter and so on let us imagine in word that no dissolution occurred among the rings until the final rejection of that which gave birth to mercury we thus paint to the eye of the mind series of cöexistent concentric circles and looking as well at them as at the processes by which according to laplace’s hypothesis they were constructed we perceive at once very singular analogy with the atomic strata and the process of the original irradiation as have described it is it impossible that on measuring the forces respectively by which each successive planetary circle was thrown off that is to say on measuring the successive excesses of rotation over gravitation which occasioned the successive discharges we should find the analogy in question more decidedly confirmed is it improbable that we should discover these forces to have varied as in the original radiation proportionally to the squares of the distances our solar system consisting in chief of one sun with sixteen planets certainly and possibly few more revolving about it at various distances and attended by seventeen moons assuredly but very probably by several others is now to be considered as an example of the innumerable agglomerations which proceeded to take place throughout the universal sphere of atoms on withdrawal of the divine volition mean to say that our solar system is to be understood as affording generic instance of these agglomerations or more correctly of the ulterior conditions at which they arrived if we keep our attention fixed on the idea of the utmost possible relation as the omnipotent design and on the precautions taken to accomplish it through difference of form among the original atoms and particular inequidistance we shall find it impossible to suppose for moment that even any two of the incipient agglomerations reached precisely the same result in the end we shall rather be inclined to think that no two stellar bodies in the universe whether suns planets or moons are particularly while all are generally similar still less then can we imagine any two assemblages of such bodies any two systems as having more than general resemblance our telescopes at this point thoroughly confirm our deductions taking our own solar system then as merely loose or general type of all we have so far proceeded in our subject as to survey the universe under the aspect of spherical space throughout which dispersed with merely general equability exist number of but generally similar systems it is not impossible that some unlooked-for optical improvement may disclose to us among innumerable varieties of systems luminous sun encircled by luminous and non-luminous rings within and without and between which revolve luminous and non-luminous planets attended by moons having moons and even these latter again having moons let us now expanding our conceptions look upon each of these systems as in itself an atom which in fact it is when we consider it as but one of the countless myriads of systems which constitute the universe regarding all then as but colossal atoms each with the same ineradicable tendency to unity which characterizes the actual atoms of which it consists we enter at once upon new order of aggregations the smaller systems in the vicinity of larger one would inevitably be drawn into still closer vicinity thousand would assemble here million there perhaps here again even billion leaving thus immeasurable vacancies in space and if now it be demanded why in the case of these systems of these merely titanic atoms speak simply of an assemblage and not as in the case of the actual atoms of more or less consolidated agglomeration if it be asked for instance why do not carry what suggest to its legitimate conclusion and describe at once these assemblages of system-atoms as rushing to consolidation in spheres as each becoming condensed into one magnificent sun my reply is that μελλοντα ταυτα am but pausing for moment on the awful threshold of the future for the present calling these assemblages clusters we see them in the incipient stages of their consolidation their absolute consolidation is to come we have now reached point from which we behold the universe as spherical space interspersed unequably with clusters it will be noticed that here prefer the adverb unequably to the phrase with merely general equability employed before it is evident in fact that the equability of distribution will diminish in the ratio of the agglomerative processes that is to say as the things distributed diminish in number thus the increase of in equability an increase which must continue until sooner or later an epoch will arrive at which the largest agglomeration will absorb all the others should be viewed as simply corroborative indication of the tendency to one and here at length it seems proper to inquire whether the ascertained facts of astronomy confirm the general arrangement which have thus deductively assigned to the heavens thoroughly they do telescopic observation guided by the laws of perspective enables us to understand that the perceptible universe exists as cluster of clusters irregularly disposed the clusters of which this universal cluster of clusters consists are merely what we have been in the practice of designating nebulæ and of these nebulæ one is of paramount interest to mankind allude to the galaxy or milky way this interests us first and most obviously on account of its great superiority in apparent size not only to any one other cluster in the firmament but to all the other clusters taken together the largest of these latter occupies mere point comparatively and is distinctly seen only with the aid of telescope the galaxy sweeps throughout the heaven and is brilliantly visible to the naked eye but it interests man chiefly although less immediately on account of its being his home the home of the earth on which he exists the home of the sun about which this earth revolves the home of that system of orbs of which the sun is the centre and primary the earth one of sixteen secondaries or planets the moon one of seventeen tertiaries or satellites the galaxy let me repeat is but one of the clusters which have been describing but one of the mis-called nebulæ revealed to us by the telescope alone sometimes as faint hazy spots in various quarters of the sky we have no reason to suppose the milky way really more extensive than the least of these nebulæ its vast superiority in size is but an apparent superiority arising from our position in regard to it that is to say from our position in its midst however strange the assertion may at first appear to those unversed in astronomy still the astronomer himself has no hesitation in asserting that we are in the midst of that inconceivable host of stars of suns of systems which constitute the galaxy moreover not only have we not only has our sun right to claim the galaxy as its own especial cluster but with slight reservation it may be said that all the distinctly visible stars of the firmament all the stars visible to the naked eye have equally right to claim it as their own there has been great deal of misconception in respect to the shape of the galaxy which in nearly all our astronomical treatises is said to resemble that of capital the cluster in question has in reality certain general very general resemblance to the planet saturn with its encompassing triple ring instead of the solid orb of that planet however we must picture to ourselves lenticular star-island or collection of stars our sun lying excentrically near the shore of the island on that side of it which is nearest the constellation of the cross and farthest from that of cassiopeia the surrounding ring where it approaches our position has in it longitudinal gash which does in fact cause the ring in our vicinity to assume loosely the appearance of capital we must not fall into the error however of conceiving the somewhat indefinite girdle as at all remote comparatively speaking from the also indefinite lenticular cluster which it surrounds and thus for mere purpose of explanation we may speak of our sun as actually situated at that point of the where its three component lines unite and conceiving this letter to be of certain solidity of certain thickness very trivial in comparison with its length we may even speak of our position as in the middle of this thickness fancying ourselves thus placed we shall no longer find difficulty in accounting for the phænomena presented which are perspective altogether when we look upward or downward that is to say when we cast our eyes in the direction of the letter’s thickness we look through fewer stars than when we cast them in the direction of its length or along either of the three component lines of course in the former case the stars appear scattered in the latter crowded to reverse this explanation an inhabitant of the earth when looking as we commonly express ourselves at the galaxy is then beholding it in some of the directions of its length is looking along the lines of the but when looking out into the general heaven he turns his eyes from the galaxy he is then surveying it in the direction of the letter’s thickness and on this account the stars seem to him scattered while in fact they are as close together on an average as in the mass of the cluster no consideration could be better adapted to convey an idea of this cluster’s stupendous extent if with telescope of high space-penetrating power we carefully inspect the firmament we shall become aware of belt of clusters of what we have hitherto called nebulæ band of varying breadth stretching from horizon to horizon at right angles to the general course of the milky way this band is the ultimate cluster of clusters this belt is the universe our galaxy is but one and perhaps one of the most inconsiderable of the clusters which go to the constitution of this ultimate universal belt or band the appearance of this cluster of clusters to our eyes as belt or band is altogether perspective phænomenon of the same character as that which causes us to behold our own individual and roughly-spherical cluster the galaxy under guise also of belt traversing the heavens at right angles to the universal one the shape of the all-inclusive cluster is of course generally that of each individual cluster which it includes just as the scattered stars which on looking from the galaxy we see in the general sky are in fact but portion of that galaxy itself and as closely intermingled with it as any of the telescopic points in what seems the densest portion of its mass so are the scattered nebulæ which on casting our eyes from the universal belt we perceive at all points of the firmament so say are these scattered nebulæ to be understood as only perspectively scattered and as part and parcel of the one supreme and universal sphere no astronomical fallacy is more untenable and none has been more pertinaciously adhered to than that of the absolute illimitation of the universe of stars the reasons for limitation as have already assigned them priori seem to me unanswerable but not to speak of these observation assures us that there is in numerous directions around us certainly if not in all positive limit or at the very least affords us no basis whatever for thinking otherwise were the succession of stars endless then the background of the sky would present us an uniform luminosity like that displayed by the galaxy since there could be absolutely no point in all that background at which would not exist star the only mode therefore in which under such state of affairs we could comprehend the voids which our telescopes find in innumerable directions would be by supposing the distance of the invisible background so immense that no ray from it has yet been able to reach us at all that this may be so who shall venture to deny maintain simply that we have not even the shadow of reason for believing that it is so when speaking of the vulgar propensity to regard all bodies on the earth as tending merely to the earth’s centre observed that with certain exceptions to be specified hereafter every body on the earth tended not only to the earth’s centre but in every conceivable direction besides the exceptions refer to those frequent gaps in the heavens where our utmost scrutiny can detect not only no stellar bodies but no indications of their existence where yawning chasms blacker than erebus seem to afford us glimpses through the boundary walls of the universe of stars into the illimitable universe of vacancy beyond now as any body existing on the earth chances to pass either through its own movement or the earth’s into line with any one of these voids or cosmical abysses it clearly is no longer attracted in the direction of that void and for the moment consequently is heavier than at any period either after or before independently of the consideration of these voids however and looking only at the generally unequable distribution of the stars we see that the absolute tendency of bodies on the earth to the earth’s centre is in state of perpetual variation page we comprehend then the insulation of our universe we perceive the isolation of that of all that which we grasp with the senses we know that there exists one cluster of clusters collection around which on all sides extend the immeasurable wildernesses of space to all human perception untenanted but because upon the confines of this universe of stars we are compelled to pause through want of farther evidence from the senses is it right to conclude that in fact there is no material point beyond that which we have thus been permitted to attain have we or have we not an analogical right to the inference that this perceptible universe that this cluster of clusters is but one of series of clusters of clusters the rest of which are invisible through distance through the diffusion of their light being so excessive ere it reaches us as not to produce upon our retinas light-impression or from there being no such emanation as light at all in these unspeakably distant worlds or lastly from the mere interval being so vast that the electric tidings of their presence in space have not yet through the lapsing myriads of years been enabled to traverse that interval have we any right to inferences have we any ground whatever for visions such as these if we have right to them in any degree we have right to their infinite extension the human brain has obviously leaning to the infinite and fondles the phantom of the idea it seems to long with passionate fervor for this impossible conception with the hope of intellectually believing it when conceived what is general among the whole race of man of course no individual of that race can be warranted in considering abnormal nevertheless there may be class of superior intelligences to whom the human bias alluded to may wear all the character of monomania my question however remains unanswered have we any right to infer let us say rather to imagine an interminable succession of the clusters of clusters or of universes more or less similar reply that the right in case such as this depends absolutely upon the hardihood of that imagination which ventures to claim the right let me declare only that as an individual myself feel impelled to the fancy without daring to call it more that there does exist limitless succession of universes more or less similar to that of which we have cognizance to that of which alone we shall ever have cognizance at the very least until the return of our own particular universe into unity if such clusters of clusters exist however and they do it is abundantly clear that having had no part in our origin they have no portion in our laws they neither attract us nor we them their material their spirit is not ours is not that which obtains in any part of our universe they could not impress our senses or our souls among them and us considering all for the moment collectively there are no influences in common each exists apart and independently in the bosom of its proper and particular god in the conduct of this discourse am aiming less at physical than at metaphysical order the clearness with which even material phænomena are presented to the understanding depends very little have long since learned to perceive upon merely natural and almost altogether upon moral arrangement if then seem to step somewhat too discursively from point to point of my topic let me suggest that do so in the hope of thus the better keeping unbroken that chain of graduated impression by which alone the intellect of man can expect to encompass the grandeurs of which speak and in their majestic totality to comprehend them so far our attention has been directed almost exclusively to general and relative grouping of the stellar bodies in space of specification there has been little and whatever ideas of quantity have been conveyed that is to say of number magnitude and distance have been conveyed incidentally and by way of preparation for more definitive conceptions these latter let us now attempt to entertain our solar system as has been already mentioned consists in chief of one sun and sixteen planets certainly but in all probability few others revolving around it as centre and attended by seventeen moons of which we know with possibly several more of which as yet we know nothing these various bodies are not true spheres but oblate spheroids spheres flattened at the poles of the imaginary axes about which they rotate the flattening being consequence of the rotation neither is the sun absolutely the centre of the system for this sun itself with all the planets revolves about perpetually shifting point of space which is the system’s general centre of gravity neither are we to consider the paths through which these different spheroids move the moons about the planets the planets about the sun or the sun about the common centre as circles in an accurate sense they are in fact ellipses one of the foci being the point about which the revolution is made an ellipse is curve returning into itself one of whose diameters is longer than the other in the longer diameter are two points equidistant from the middle of the line and so situated otherwise that if from each of them straight line be drawn to any one point of the curve the two lines taken together will be equal to the longer diameter itself now let us conceive such an ellipse at one of the points mentioned which are the foci let us fasten an orange by an elastic thread let us connect this orange with pea and let us place this latter on the circumference of the ellipse let us now move the pea continuously around the orange keeping always on the circumference of the ellipse the elastic thread which of course varies in length as we move the pea will form what in geometry is called radius vector now if the orange be understood as the sun and the pea as planet revolving about it then the revolution should be made at such rate with velocity so varying that the radius vector may pass over equal areas of space in equal times the progress of the pea should be in other words the progress of the planet is of course slow in proportion to its distance from the sun swift in proportion to its proximity those planets moreover move the more slowly which are the farther from the sun the squares of their periods of revolution having the same proportion to each other as have to each other the cubes of their mean distances from the sun the wonderfully complex laws of revolution here described however are not to be understood as obtaining in our system alone they everywhere prevail where attraction prevails they control the universe every shining speck in the firmament is no doubt luminous sun resembling our own at least in its general features and having in attendance upon it greater or less number of planets greater or less whose still lingering luminosity is not sufficient to render them visible to us at so vast distance but which nevertheless revolve moon-attended about their starry centres in obedience to the principles just detailed in obedience to the three omniprevalent laws of revolution the three immortal laws guessed by the imaginative kepler and but subsequently demonstrated and accounted for by the patient and mathematical newton among tribe of philosophers who pride themselves excessively upon matter-of fact it is far too fashionable to sneer at all speculation under the comprehensive sobriquet guess-work the point to be considered is who guesses in guessing with plato we spend our time to better purpose now and then than in hearkening to demonstration by alcmæon in many works on astronomy find it distinctly stated that the laws of kepler are the basis of the great principle gravitation this idea must have arisen from the fact that the suggestion of these laws by kepler and his proving them posteriori to have an actual existence led newton to account for them by the hypothesis of gravitation and finally to demonstrate them priori as necessary consequences of the hypothetical principle thus so far from the laws of kepler being the basis of gravity gravity is the basis of these laws as it is indeed of all the laws of the material universe which are not referable to repulsion alone the mean distance of the earth from the moon that is to say from the heavenly body in our closest vicinity is miles mercury the planet nearest the sun is distant from him millions of miles venus the next revolves at distance of millions the earth which comes next at distance of millions mars then at distance of millions now come the eight asteroids ceres juno vesta pallas astræa flora iris and hebe at an average distance of about millions then we have jupiter distant millions then saturn millions then uranus hundred millions finally neptune lately discovered and revolving at distance say of hundred millions leaving neptune out of the account of which as yet we know little accurately and which is possibly one of system of asteroids it will be seen that within certain limits there exists an order of interval among the planets speaking loosely we may say that each outer planet is twice as far from the sun as is the next inner one may not the order here mentioned may not the law of bode be deduced from consideration of the analogy suggested by me as having place between the solar discharge of rings and the mode of the atomic irradiation the numbers hurriedly mentioned in this summary of distance it is folly to attempt comprehending unless in the light of abstract arithmetical facts they are not practically tangible ones they convey no precise ideas have stated that neptune the planet farthest from the sun revolves about him at distance of hundred millions of miles so far good have stated mathematical fact and without comprehending it in the least we may put it to use mathematically but in mentioning even that the moon revolves about the earth at the comparatively trifling distance of miles entertained no expectation of giving any one to understand to know to feel how far from the earth the moon actually is miles there are perhaps few of my readers who have not crossed the atlantic ocean yet how many of them have distinct idea of even the miles intervening between shore and shore doubt indeed whether the man lives who can force into his brain the most remote conception of the interval between one milestone and its next neighbor upon the turnpike we are in some measure aided however in our consideration of distance by combining this consideration with the kindred one of velocity sound passes through feet of space in second of time now were it possible for an inhabitant of the earth to see the flash of cannon discharged in the moon and to hear the report he would have to wait after perceiving the former more than entire days and nights before getting any intimation of the latter however feeble be the impression even thus conveyed of the moon’s real distance from the earth it will nevertheless effect good object in enabling us more clearly to see the futility of attempting to grasp such intervals as that of the hundred millions of miles between our sun and neptune or even that of the millions between the sun and the earth we inhabit cannon-ball flying at the greatest velocity with which such ball has ever been known to fly could not traverse the latter interval in less than years while for the former it would require our moon’s real diameter is miles yet she is comparatively so trifling an object that it would take nearly such orbs to compose one as great as the earth the diameter of our own globe is miles but from the enunciation of these numbers what positive idea do we derive if we ascend an ordinary mountain and look around us from its summit we behold landscape stretching say miles in every direction forming circle miles in circumference and including an area of square miles the extent of such prospect on account of the successiveness with which its portions necessarily present themselves to view can be only very feebly and very partially appreciated yet the entire panorama would comprehend no more than one th part of the mere surface of our globe were this panorama then to be succeeded after the lapse of an hour by another of equal extent this again by third after the lapse of another hour this again by fourth after lapse of another hour and so on until the scenery of the whole earth were exhausted and were we to be engaged in examining these various panoramas for twelve hours of every day we should nevertheless be years and days in completing the general survey but if the mere surface of the earth eludes the grasp of the imagination what are we to think of its cubical contents it embraces mass of matter equal in weight to at least sextillions quintillions of tons let us suppose it in state of quiescence and now let us endeavor to conceive mechanical force sufficient to set it in motion not the strength of all the myriads of beings whom we may conclude to inhabit the planetary worlds of our system not the combined physical strength of all these beings even admitting all to be more powerful than man would avail to stir the ponderous mass single inch from its position what are we to understand then of the force which under similar circumstances would be required to move the largest of our planets jupiter this is miles in diameter and would include within its periphery more than thousand orbs of the magnitude of our own yet this stupendous body is actually flying around the sun at the rate of miles an hour that is to say with velocity times greater than that of cannon-ball the thought of such phænomenon cannot well be said to startle the mind it palsies and appals it not unfrequently we task our imagination in picturing the capacities of an angel let us fancy such being at distance of some hundred miles from jupiter close eye-witness of this planet as it speeds on its annual revolution now can we demand fashion for ourselves any conception so distinct of this ideal being’s spiritual exaltation as that involved in the supposition that even by this immeasurable mass of matter whirled immediately before his eyes with velocity so unutterable he an angel angelic though he be is not at once struck into nothingness and overwhelmed at this point however it seems proper to suggest that in fact we have been speaking of comparative trifles our sun the central and controlling orb of the system to which jupiter belongs is not only greater than jupiter but greater by far than all the planets of the system taken together this fact is an essential condition indeed of the stability of the system itself the diameter of jupiter has been mentioned it is miles that of the sun is miles an inhabitant of the latter travelling miles day would be more than years in going round great circle of its circumference it occupies cubical space of quadrillions trillions of miles the moon as has been stated revolves about the earth at distance of miles in an orbit consequently of nearly million and half now were the sun placed upon the earth centre over centre the body of the former would extend in every direction not only to the line of the moon’s orbit but beyond it distance of miles and here once again let me suggest that in fact we have still been speaking of comparative trifles the distance of the planet neptune from the sun has been stated it is hundred millions of miles the circumference of its orbit therefore is about billions let this be borne in mind while we glance at some one of the brightest stars between this and the star of our system the sun there is gulf of space to convey any idea of which we should need the tongue of an archangel from our system then and from our sun or star the star at which we suppose ourselves glancing is thing altogether apart still for the moment let us imagine it placed upon our sun centre over centre as we just now imagined this sun itself placed upon the earth let us now conceive the particular star we have in mind extending in every direction beyond the orbit of mercury of venus of the earth still on beyond the orbit of mars of jupiter of uranus until finally we fancy it filling the circle billions of miles in circumference which is described by the revolution of leverrier’s planet when we have conceived all this we shall have entertained no extravagant conception there is the very best reason for believing that many of the stars are even far larger than the one we have imagined mean to say that we have the very best empirical basis for such belief and in looking back at the original atomic arrangements for diversity which have been assumed as part of the divine plan in the constitution of the universe we shall be enabled easily to understand and to credit the existence of even far vaster disproportions in stellar size than any to which have hitherto alluded the largest orbs of course we must expect to find rolling through the widest vacancies of space remarked just now that to convey an idea of the interval between our sun and any one of the other stars we should require the eloquence of an archangel in so saying should not be accused of exaggeration for in simple truth these are topics on which it is scarcely possible to exaggerate but let us bring the matter more distinctly before the eye of the mind in the first place we may get general relative conception of the interval referred to by comparing it with the inter-planetary spaces if for example we suppose the earth which is in reality millions of miles from the sun to be only one foot from that luminary then neptune would be feet distant and the star alpha lyræ at the very least now presume that in the termination of my last sentence few of my readers have noticed anything especially objectionable particularly wrong said that the distance of the earth from the sun being taken at one foot the distance of neptune would be feet and that of alpha lyræ the proportion between one foot and has appeared perhaps to convey sufficiently definite impression of the proportion between the two intervals that of the earth from the sun and that of alpha lyræ from the same luminary but my account of the matter should in reality have run thus the distance of the earth from the sun being taken at one foot the distance of neptune would be feet and that of alpha lyræ miles that is to say had assigned to alpha lyræ in my first statement of the case only the th part of that distance which is the least distance possible at which it can actually lie to proceed however distant mere planet is yet when we look at it through telescope we see it under certain form of certain appreciable size now have already hinted at the probable bulk of many of the stars nevertheless when we view any one of them even through the most powerful telescope it is found to present us with no form and consequently with no magnitude whatever we see it as point and nothing more again let us suppose ourselves walking at night on highway in field on one side of the road is line of tall objects say trees the figures of which are distinctly defined against the background of the sky this line of objects extends at right angles to the road and from the road to the horizon now as we proceed along the road we see these objects changing their positions respectively in relation to certain fixed point in that portion of the firmament which forms the background of the view let us suppose this fixed point sufficiently fixed for our purpose to be the rising moon we become aware at once that while the tree nearest us so far alters its position in respect to the moon as to seem flying behind us the tree in the extreme distance has scarcely changed at all its relative position with the satellite we then go on to perceive that the farther the objects are from us the less they alter their positions and the converse then we begin unwittingly to estimate the distances of individual trees by the degrees in which they evince the relative alteration finally we come to understand how it might be possible to ascertain the actual distance of any given tree in the line by using the amount of relative alteration as basis in simple geometrical problem now this relative alteration is what we call parallax and by parallax we calculate the distances of the heavenly bodies applying the principle to the trees in question we should of course be very much at loss to comprehend the distance of that tree which however far we proceeded along the road should evince no parallax at all this in the case described is thing impossible but impossible only because all distances on our earth are trivial indeed in comparison with the vast cosmical quantities we may speak of them as absolutely nothing now let us suppose the star alpha lyræ directly overhead and let us imagine that instead of standing on the earth we stand at one end of straight road stretching through space to distance equalling the diameter of the earth’s orbit that is to say to distance of millions of miles having observed by means of the most delicate micrometrical instruments the exact position of the star let us now pass along this inconceivable road until we reach its other extremity now once again let us look at the star it is precisely where we left it our instruments however delicate assure us that its relative position is absolutely is identically the same as at the commencement of our unutterable journey no parallax none whatever has been found the fact is that in regard to the distance of the fixed stars of any one of the myriads of suns glistening on the farther side of that awful chasm which separates our system from its brothers in the cluster to which it belongs astronomical science until very lately could speak only with negative certainty assuming the brightest as the nearest we could say even of them only that there is certain incomprehensible distance on the hither side of which they cannot be how far they are beyond it we had in no case been able to ascertain we perceived for example that alpha lyræ cannot be nearer to us than trillions billions of miles but for all we knew and indeed for all we now know it may be distant from us the square or the cube or any other power of the number mentioned by dint however of wonderfully minute and cautious observations continued with novel instruments for many laborious years bessel not long ago deceased has lately succeeded in determining the distance of six or seven stars among others that of the star numbered in the constellation of the swan the distance in this latter instance ascertained is times that of the sun which last it will be remembered is millions of miles the star cygni then is nearly trillions of miles from us or more than three times the distance assigned as the least possible for alpha lyræ in attempting to appreciate this interval by the aid of any considerations of velocity as we did in endeavoring to estimate the distance of the moon we must leave out of sight altogether such nothings as the speed of cannon-ball or of sound light however according to the latest calculations of struve proceeds at the rate of miles in second thought itself cannot pass through this interval more speedily if indeed thought can traverse it at all yet in coming from cygni to us even at this inconceivable rate light occupies more than ten years and consequently were the star this moment blotted out from the universe still for ten years would it continue to sparkle on undimmed in its paradoxical glory keeping now in mind whatever feeble conception we may have attained of the interval between our sun and cygni let us remember that this interval however unutterably vast we are permitted to consider as but the average interval among the countless host of stars composing that cluster or nebula to which our system as well as that of cygni belongs have in fact stated the case with great moderation we have excellent reason for believing cygni to be one of the nearest stars and thus for concluding at least for the present that its distance from us is less than the average distance between star and star in the magnificent cluster of the milky way and here once again and finally it seems proper to suggest that even as yet we have been speaking of trifles ceasing to wonder at the space between star and star in our own or in any particular cluster let us rather turn our thoughts to the intervals between cluster and cluster in the all comprehensive cluster of the universe have already said that light proceeds at the rate of miles in second that is about millions of miles in minute or about millions of miles in an hour yet so far removed from us are some of the nebulæ that even light speeding with this velocity could not and does not reach us from those mysterious regions in less than millions of years this calculation moreover is made by the elder herschell and in reference merely to those comparatively proximate clusters within the scope of his own telescope there are nebulæ however which through the magical tube of lord rosse are this instant whispering in our ears the secrets of million of ages by-gone in word the events which we behold now at this moment in those worlds are the identical events which interested their inhabitants ten hundred thousand centuries ago in intervals in distances such as this suggestion forces upon the soul rather than upon the mind we find at length fitting climax to all hitherto frivolous considerations of quantity our fancies thus occupied with the cosmical distances let us take the opportunity of referring to the difficulty which we have so often experienced while pursuing the beaten path of astronomical reflection in accounting for the immeasurable voids alluded to in comprehending why chasms so totally unoccupied and therefore apparently so needless have been made to intervene between star and star between cluster and cluster in understanding to be brief sufficient reason for the titanic scale in respect of mere space on which the universe is seen to be constructed rational cause for the phænomenon maintain that astronomy has palpably failed to assign but the considerations through which in this essay we have proceeded step by step enable us clearly and immediately to perceive that space and duration are one that the universe might endure throughout an æra at all commensurate with the grandeur of its component material portions and with the high majesty of its spiritual purposes it was necessary that the original atomic diffusion be made to so inconceivable an extent as to be only not infinite it was required in word that the stars should be gathered into visibility from invisible nebulosity proceed from nebulosity to consolidation and so grow grey in giving birth and death to unspeakably numerous and complex variations of vitalic development it was required that the stars should do all this should have time thoroughly to accomplish all these divine purposes during the period in which all things were effecting their return into unity with velocity accumulating in the inverse proportion of the squares of the distances at which lay the inevitable end throughout all this we have no difficulty in understanding the absolute accuracy of the divine adaptation the density of the stars respectively proceeds of course as their condensation diminishes condensation and heterogeneity keep pace with each other through the latter which is the index of the former we estimate the vitalic and spiritual development thus in the density of the globes we have the measure in which their purposes are fulfilled as density proceeds as the divine intentions are accomplished as less and still less remains to be accomplished so in the same ratio should we expect to find an acceleration of the end and thus the philosophical mind will easily comprehend that the divine designs in constituting the stars advance mathematically to their fulfilment and more it will readily give the advance mathematical expression it will decide that this advance is inversely proportional with the squares of the distances of all created things from the starting-point and goal of their creation not only is this divine adaptation however mathematically accurate but there is that about it which stamps it as divine in distinction from that which is merely the work of human constructiveness allude to the complete mutuality of adaptation for example in human constructions particular cause has particular effect particular intention brings to pass particular object but this is all we see no reciprocity the effect does not re-act upon the cause the intention does not change relations with the object in divine constructions the object is either design or object as we choose to regard it and we may take at any time cause for an effect or the converse so that we can never absolutely decide which is which to give an instance in polar climates the human frame to maintain its animal heat requires for combustion in the capillary system an abundant supply of highly azotized food such as train-oil but again in polar climates nearly the sole food afforded man is the oil of abundant seals and whales now whether is oil at hand because imperatively demanded or the only thing demanded because the only thing to be obtained it is impossible to decide there is an absolute reciprocity of adaptation the pleasure which we derive from any display of human ingenuity is in the ratio of the approach to this species of reciprocity in the construction of plot for example in fictitious literature we should aim at so arranging the incidents that we shall not be able to determine of any one of them whether it depends from any one other or upholds it in this sense of course perfection of plot is really or practically unattainable but only because it is finite intelligence that constructs the plots of god are perfect the universe is plot of god and now we have reached point at which the intellect is forced again to struggle against its propensity for analogical inference against its monomaniac grasping at the infinite moons have been seen revolving about planets planets about stars and the poetical instinct of humanity its instinct of the symmetrical if the symmetry be but symmetry of surface this instinct which the soul not only of man but of all created beings took up in the beginning from the geometrical basis of the universal irradiation impels us to the fancy of an endless extension of this system of cycles closing our eyes equally to de_duction and in_duction we insist upon imagining revolution of all the orbs of the galaxy about some gigantic globe which we take to be the central pivot of the whole each cluster in the great cluster of clusters is imagined of course to be similarly supplied and constructed while that the analogy may be wanting at no point we go on to conceive these clusters themselves again as revolving about some still more august sphere this latter still again with its encircling clusters as but one of yet more magnificent series of agglomerations gyrating about yet another orb central to them some orb still more unspeakably sublime some orb let us rather say of infinite sublimity endlessly multiplied by the infinitely sublime such are the conditions continued in perpetuity which the voice of what some people term analogy calls upon the fancy to depict and the reason to contemplate if possible without becoming dissatisfied with the picture such in general are the interminable gyrations beyond gyration which we have been instructed by philosophy to comprehend and to account for at least in the best manner we can now and then however philosopher proper one whose phrenzy takes very determinate turn whose genius to speak more reverentially has strongly-pronounced washerwomanish bias doing every thing up by the dozen enables us to see precisely that point out of sight at which the revolutionary processes in question do and of right ought to come to an end it is hardly worth while perhaps even to sneer at the reveries of fourrier but much has been said latterly of the hypothesis of mädler that there exists in the centre of the galaxy stupendous globe about which all the systems of the cluster revolve the period of our own indeed has been stated millions of years that our sun has motion in space independently of its rotation and revolution about the system’s centre of gravity has long been suspected this motion granting it to exist would be manifested perspectively the stars in that firmamental region which we were leaving behind us would in very long series of years become crowded those in the opposite quarter scattered now by means of astronomical history we ascertain cloudily that some such phænomena have occurred on this ground it has been declared that our system is moving to point in the heavens diametrically opposite the star zeta herculis but this inference is perhaps the maximum to which we have any logical right mädler however has gone so far as to designate particular star alcyone in the pleiades as being at or about the very spot around which general revolution is performed now since by analogy we are led in the first instance to these dreams it is no more than proper that we should abide by analogy at least in some measure during their development and that analogy which suggests the revolution suggests at the same time central orb about which it should be performed so far the astronomer was consistent this central orb however should dynamically be greater than all the orbs taken together which surround it of these there are about millions why then it was of course demanded do we not see this vast central sun at least equal in mass to millions of such suns as ours why do we not see it we especially who occupy the mid region of the cluster the very locality near which at all events must be situated this incomparable star the reply was ready it must be non-luminous as are our planets here then to suit purpose analogy is suddenly let fall not so it may be said we know that non-luminous suns actually exist it is true that we have reason at least for supposing so but we have certainly no reason whatever for supposing that the non-luminous suns in question are encircled by luminous suns while these again are surrounded by non-luminous planets and it is precisely all this with which mädler is called upon to find any thing analogous in the heavens for it is precisely all this which he imagines in the case of the galaxy admitting the thing to be so we cannot help here picturing to ourselves how sad puzzle the why it is so must prove to all priori philosophers but granting in the very teeth of analogy and of every thing else the non-luminosity of the vast central orb we may still inquire how this orb so enormous could fail of being rendered visible by the flood of light thrown upon it from the millions of glorious suns glaring in all directions about it upon the urging of this question the idea of an actually solid central sun appears in some measure to have been abandoned and speculation proceeded to assert that the systems of the cluster perform their revolutions merely about an immaterial centre of gravity common to all here again then to suit purpose analogy is let fall the planets of our system revolve it is true about common centre of gravity but they do this in connexion with and in consequence of material sun whose mass more than counterbalances the rest of the system the mathematical circle is curve composed of an infinity of straight lines but this idea of the circle an idea which in view of all ordinary geometry is merely the mathematical as contradistinguished from the practical idea is in sober fact the practical conception which alone we have any right to entertain in regard to the majestic circle with which we have to deal at least in fancy when we suppose our system revolving about point in the centre of the galaxy let the most vigorous of human imaginations attempt but to take single step towards the comprehension of sweep so ineffable it would scarcely be paradoxical to say that flash of lightning itself travelling forever upon the circumference of this unutterable circle would still forever be travelling in straight line that the path of our sun in such an orbit would to any human perception deviate in the slightest degree from straight line even in million of years is proposition not to be entertained yet we are required to believe that curvature has become apparent during the brief period of our astronomical history during mere point during the utter nothingness of two or three thousand years it may be said that mädler has really ascertained curvature in the direction of our system’s now well-established progress through space admitting if necessary this fact to be in reality such maintain that nothing is thereby shown except the reality of this fact the fact of curvature for its thorough determination ages will be required and when determined it will be found indicative of some binary or other multiple relation between our sun and some one or more of the proximate stars hazard nothing however in predicting that after the lapse of many centuries all efforts at determining the path of our sun through space will be abandoned as fruitless this is easily conceivable when we look at the infinity of perturbation it must experience from its perpetually-shifting relations with other orbs in the common approach of all to the nucleus of the galaxy but in examining other nebulæ than that of the milky way in surveying generally the clusters which overspread the heavens do we or do we not find confirmation of mädler’s hypothesis we do not the forms of the clusters are exceedingly diverse when casually viewed but on close inspection through powerful telescopes we recognize the sphere very distinctly as at least the proximate form of all their constitution in general being at variance with the idea of revolution about common centre it is difficult says sir john herschell to form any conception of the dynamical state of such systems on one hand without rotary motion and centrifugal force it is hardly possible not to regard them as in state of progressive collapse on the other granting such motion and such force we find it no less difficult to reconcile their forms with the rotation of the whole system meaning cluster around any single axis without which internal collision would appear to be inevitable some remarks lately made about the nebulæ by dr nichol in taking quite different view of the cosmical conditions from any taken in this discourse have very peculiar applicability to the point now at issue he says when our greatest telescopes are brought to bear upon them we find that those which were thought to be irregular are not so they approach nearer to globe here is one that looked oval but lord rosse’s telescope brought it into circle now there occurs very remarkable circumstance in reference to these comparatively sweeping circular masses of nebulæ we find they are not entirely circular but the reverse and that all around them on every side there are volumes of stars stretching out apparently as if they were rushing towards great central mass in consequence of the action of some great power must be understood as denying especially only the revolutionary portion of mädler’s hypothesis of course if no great central orb exists now in our cluster such will exist hereafter whenever existing it will be merely the nucleus of the consolidation were to describe in my own words what must necessarily be the existing condition of each nebula on the hypothesis that all matter is as suggest now returning to its original unity should simply be going over nearly verbatim the language here employed by dr nichol without the faintest suspicion of that stupendous truth which is the key to these nebular phænomena and here let me fortify my position still farther by the voice of greater than mädler of one moreover to whom all the data of mädler have long been familiar things carefully and thoroughly considered referring to the elaborate calculations of argelander the very researches which form mädler’s basis humboldt whose generalizing powers have never perhaps been equalled has the following observation when we regard the real proper or non-perspective motions of the stars we find many groups of them moving in opposite directions and the data as yet in hand render it not necessary at least to conceive that the systems composing the milky way or the clusters generally composing the universe are revolving about any particular centre unknown whether luminous or non-luminous it is but man’s longing for fundamental first cause that impels both his intellect and his fancy to the adoption of such an hypothesis betrachtet man die nicht perspectivischen eigenen bewegungen der sterne so scheinen viele gruppenweise in ihrer richtung entgegengesetzt und die bisher gesammelten thatsachen machen es auf’s wenigste nicht nothwendig anzunehmen dass alle theile unserer sternenschicht oder gar der gesammten sterneninseln welche den weltraum füllen sich um einen grossen unbekannten leuchtenden oder dunkeln centralkörper bewegen das streben nach den letzten und höchsten grundursachen macht freilich die reflectirende thätigkeit des menschen wie seine phantasie zu einer solchen annahme geneigt the phænomenon here alluded to that of many groups moving in opposite directions is quite inexplicable by mädler’s idea but arises as necessary consequence from that which forms the basis of this discourse while the merely general direction of each atom of each moon planet star or cluster would on my hypothesis be of course absolutely rectilinear while the general path of all bodies would be right line leading to the centre of all it is clear nevertheless that this general rectilinearity would be compounded of what with scarcely any exaggeration we may term an infinity of particular curves an infinity of local deviations from rectilinearity the result of continuous differences of relative position among the multitudinous masses as each proceeded on its own proper journey to the end quoted just now from sir john herschell the following words used in reference to the clusters on one hand without rotary motion and centrifugal force it is hardly possible not to regard them as in state of progressive collapse the fact is that in surveying the nebulæ with telescope of high power we shall find it quite impossible having once conceived this idea of collapse not to gather at all points corroboration of the idea nucleus is always apparent in the direction of which the stars seem to be precipitating themselves nor can these nuclei be mistaken for merely perspective phænomena the clusters are really denser near the centre sparser in the regions more remote from it in word we see every thing as we should see it were collapse taking place but in general it may be said of these clusters that we can fairly entertain while looking at them the idea of orbitual movement about centre only by admitting the possible existence in the distant domains of space of dynamical laws with which we are unacquainted on the part of herschell however there is evidently reluctance to regard the nebulæ as in state of progressive collapse but if facts if even appearances justify the supposition of their being in this state why it may well be demanded is he disinclined to admit it simply on account of prejudice merely because the supposition is at war with preconceived and utterly baseless notion that of the endlessness that of the eternal stability of the universe if the propositions of this discourse are tenable the state of progressive collapse is precisely that state in which alone we are warranted in considering all things and with due humility let me here confess that for my part am at loss to conceive how any other understanding of the existing condition of affairs could ever have made its way into the human brain the tendency to collapse and the attraction of gravitation are convertible phrases in using either we speak of the rëaction of the first act never was necessity less obvious than that of supposing matter imbued with an ineradicable quality forming part of its material nature quality or instinct forever inseparable from it and by dint of which inalienable principle every atom is perpetually impelled to seek its fellow-atom never was necessity less obvious than that of entertaining this unphilosophical idea going boldly behind the vulgar thought we have to conceive metaphysically that the gravitating principle appertains to matter temporarily only while diffused only while existing as many instead of as one appertains to it by virtue of its state of irradiation alone appertains in word altogether to its condition and not in the slightest degree to itself in this view when the irradiation shall have returned into its source when the rëaction shall be completed the gravitating principle will no longer exist and in fact astronomers without at any time reaching the idea here suggested seem to have been approximating it in the assertion that if there were but one body in the universe it would be impossible to understand how the principle gravity could obtain that is to say from consideration of matter as they find it they reach conclusion at which deductively arrive that so pregnant suggestion as the one just quoted should have been permitted to remain so long unfruitful is nevertheless mystery which find it difficult to fathom it is perhaps in no little degree however our propensity for the continuous for the analogical in the present case more particularly for the symmetrical which has been leading us astray and in fact the sense of the symmetrical is an instinct which may be depended upon with an almost blindfold reliance it is the poetical essence of the universe of the universe which in the supremeness of its symmetry is but the most sublime of poems now symmetry and consistency are convertible terms thus poetry and truth are one thing is consistent in the ratio of its truth true in the ratio of its consistency perfect consistency repeat can be nothing but an absolute truth we may take it for granted then that man cannot long or widely err if he suffer himself to be guided by his poetical which have maintained to be his truthful in being his symmetrical instinct he must have care however lest in pursuing too heedlessly the superficial symmetry of forms and motions he leave out of sight the really essential symmetry of the principles which determine and control them that the stellar bodies would finally be merged in one that at last all would be drawn into the substance of one stupendous central orb already existing is an idea which for some time past seems vaguely and indeterminately to have held possession of the fancy of mankind it is an idea in fact which belongs to the class of the excessively obvious it springs instantly from superficial observation of the cyclic and seemingly gyrating or vorticial movements of those individual portions of the universe which come most immediately and most closely under our observation there is not perhaps human being of ordinary education and of average reflective capacity to whom at some period the fancy in question has not occurred as if spontaneously or intuitively and wearing all the character of very profound and very original conception this conception however so commonly entertained has never within my knowledge arisen out of any abstract considerations being on the contrary always suggested as say by the vorticial movements about centres reason for it also cause for the ingathering of all the orbs into one imagined to be already existing was naturally sought in the same direction among these cyclic movements themselves thus it happened that on announcement of the gradual and perfectly regular decrease observed in the orbit of enck’s comet at every successive revolution about our sun astronomers were nearly unanimous in the opinion that the cause in question was found that principle was discovered sufficient to account physically for that final universal agglomeration which repeat the analogical symmetrical or poetical instinct of man had predetermined to understand as something more than simple hypothesis this cause this sufficient reason for the final ingathering was declared to exist in an exceedingly rare but still material medium pervading space which medium by retarding in some degree the progress of the comet perpetually weakened its tangential force thus giving predominance to the centripetal which of course drew the comet nearer and nearer at each revolution and would eventually precipitate it upon the sun all this was strictly logical admitting the medium or ether but this ether was assumed most illogically on the ground that no other mode than the one spoken of could be discovered of accounting for the observed decrease in the orbit of the comet as if from the fact that we could discover no other mode of accounting for it it followed in any respect that no other mode of accounting for it existed it is clear that innumerable causes might operate in combination to diminish the orbit without even possibility of our ever becoming acquainted with one of them in the meantime it has never been fairly shown perhaps why the retardation occasioned by the skirts of the sun’s atmosphere through which the comet passes at perihelion is not enough to account for the phænomenon that enck’s comet will be absorbed into the sun is probable that all the comets of the system will be absorbed is more than merely possible but in such case the principle of absorption must be referred to eccentricity of orbit to the close approximation to the sun of the comets at their perihelia and is principle not affecting in any degree the ponderous spheres which are to be regarded as the true material constituents of the universe touching comets in general let me here suggest in passing that we cannot be far wrong in looking upon them as the lightning-flashes of the cosmical heaven the idea of retarding ether and through it of final agglomeration of all things seemed at one time however to be confirmed by the observation of positive decrease in the orbit of the solid moon by reference to eclipses recorded years ago it was found that the velocity of the satellite’s revolution then was considerably less than it is now that on the hypothesis that its motions in its orbit is uniformly in accordance with kepler’s law and was accurately determined then years ago it is now in advance of the position it should occupy by nearly miles the increase of velocity proved of course diminution of orbit and astronomers were fast yielding to belief in an ether as the sole mode of accounting for the phænomenon when lagrange came to the rescue he showed that owing to the configurations of the spheroids the shorter axes of their ellipses are subject to variation in length the longer axes being permanent and that this variation is continuous and vibratory so that every orbit is in state of transition either from circle to ellipse or from ellipse to circle in the case of the moon where the shorter axis is de_creasing the orbit is passing from circle to ellipse and consequently is de_creasing too but after long series of ages the ultimate eccentricity will be attained then the shorter axis will proceed to in_crease until the orbit becomes circle when the process of shortening will again take place and so on forever in the case of the earth the orbit is passing from ellipse to circle the facts thus demonstrated do away of course with all necessity for supposing an ether and with all apprehension of the system’s instability on the ether’s account it will be remembered that have myself assumed what we may term an ether have spoken of subtle influence which we know to be ever in attendance upon matter although becoming manifest only through matter’s heterogeneity to this influence without daring to touch it at all in any effort at explaining its awful nature have referred the various phænomena of electricity heat light magnetism and more of vitality consciousness and thought in word of spirituality it will be seen at once then that the ether thus conceived is radically distinct from the ether of the astronomers inasmuch as theirs is matter and mine not with the idea of material ether seems thus to have departed altogether the thought of that universal agglomeration so long predetermined by the poetical fancy of mankind an agglomeration in which sound philosophy might have been warranted in putting faith at least to certain extent if for no other reason than that by this poetical fancy it had been so predetermined but so far as astronomy so far as mere physics have yet spoken the cycles of the universe are perpetual the universe has no conceivable end had an end been demonstrated however from so purely collateral cause as an ether man’s instinct of the divine capacity to adapt would have rebelled against the demonstration we should have been forced to regard the universe with some such sense of dissatisfaction as we experience in contemplating an unnecessarily complex work of human art creation would have affected us as an imperfect plot in romance where the dénoûment is awkwardly brought about by interposed incidents external and foreign to the main subject instead of springing out of the bosom of the thesis out of the heart of the ruling idea instead of arising as result of the primary proposition as inseparable and inevitable part and parcel of the fundamental conception of the book what mean by the symmetry of mere surface will now be more clearly understood it is simply by the blandishment of this symmetry that we have been beguiled into the general idea of which mädler’s hypothesis is but part the idea of the vorticial indrawing of the orbs dismissing this nakedly physical conception the symmetry of principle sees the end of all things metaphysically involved in the thought of beginning seeks and finds in this origin of all things the rudiment of this end and perceives the impiety of supposing this end likely to be brought about less simply less directly less obviously less artistically than through the rëaction of the originating act recurring then to previous suggestion let us understand the systems let us understand each star with its attendant planets as but titanic atom existing in space with precisely the same inclination for unity which characterized in the beginning the actual atoms after their irradiation throughout the universal sphere as these original atoms rushed towards each other in generally straight lines so let us conceive as at least generally rectilinear the paths of the system-atoms towards their respective centres of aggregation and in this direct drawing together of the systems into clusters with similar and simultaneous drawing together of the clusters themselves while undergoing consolidation we have at length attained the great now the awful present the existing condition of the universe of the still more awful future not irrational analogy may guide us in framing an hypothesis the equilibrium between the centripetal and centrifugal forces of each system being necessarily destroyed upon attainment of certain proximity to the nucleus of the cluster to which it belongs there must occur at once chaotic or seemingly chaotic precipitation of the moons upon the planets of the planets upon the suns and of the suns upon the nuclei and the general result of this precipitation must be the gathering of the myriad now-existing stars of the firmament into an almost infinitely less number of almost infinitely superior spheres in being immeasurably fewer the worlds of that day will be immeasurably greater than our own then indeed amid unfathomable abysses will be glaring unimaginable suns but all this will be merely climacic magnificence foreboding the great end of this end the new genesis described can be but very partial postponement while undergoing consolidation the clusters themselves with speed prodigiously accumulative have been rushing towards their own general centre and now with thousand-fold electric velocity commensurate only with their material grandeur and with the spiritual passion of their appetite for oneness the majestic remnants of the tribe of stars flash at length into common embrace the inevitable catastrophe is at hand but this catastrophe what is it we have seen accomplished the ingathering of the orbs henceforward are we not to understand one material globe of globes as constituting and comprehending the universe such fancy would be altogether at war with every assumption and consideration of this discourse have already alluded to that absolute reciprocity of adaptation which is the idiosyncrasy of the divine art stamping it divine up to this point of our reflections we have been regarding the electrical influence as something by dint of whose repulsion alone matter is enabled to exist in that state of diffusion demanded for the fulfilment of its purposes so far in word we have been considering the influence in question as ordained for matter’s sake to subserve the objects of matter with perfectly legitimate reciprocity we are now permitted to look at matter as created solely for the sake of this influence solely to serve the objects of this spiritual ether through the aid by the means through the agency of matter and by dint of its heterogeneity is this ether manifested is spirit individualized it is merely in the development of this ether through heterogeneity that particular masses of matter become animate sensitive and in the ratio of their heterogeneity some reaching degree of sensitiveness involving what we call thought and thus attaining conscious intelligence in this view we are enabled to perceive matter as means not as an end its purposes are thus seen to have been comprehended in its diffusion and with the return into unity these purposes cease the absolutely consolidated globe of globes would be objectless therefore not for moment could it continue to exist matter created for an end would unquestionably on fulfilment of that end be matter no longer let us endeavor to understand that it would disappear and that god would remain all in all that every work of divine conception must cöexist and cöexpire with its particular design seems to me especially obvious and make no doubt that on perceiving the final globe of globes to be objectless the majority of my readers will be satisfied with my therefore it cannot continue to exist nevertheless as the startling thought of its instantaneous disappearance is one which the most powerful intellect cannot be expected readily to entertain on grounds so decidedly abstract let us endeavor to look at the idea from some other and more ordinary point of view let us see how thoroughly and beautifully it is corroborated in an posteriori consideration of matter as we actually find it have before said that attraction and repulsion being undeniably the sole properties by which matter is manifested to mind we are justified in assuming that matter exists only as attraction and repulsion in other words that attraction and repulsion are matter there being no conceivable case in which we may not employ the term matter and the terms attraction and repulsion taken together as equivalent and therefore convertible expressions in logic page now the very definition of attraction implies particularity the existence of parts particles or atoms for we define it as the tendency of each atom to every other atom according to certain law of course where there are no parts where there is absolute unity where the tendency to oneness is satisfied there can be no attraction this has been fully shown and all philosophy admits it when on fulfilment of its purposes then matter shall have returned into its original condition of one condition which presupposes the expulsion of the separative ether whose province and whose capacity are limited to keeping the atoms apart until that great day when this ether being no longer needed the overwhelming pressure of the finally collective attraction shall at length just sufficiently predominate and expel it when say matter finally expelling the ether shall have returned into absolute unity it will then to speak paradoxically for the moment be matter without attraction and without repulsion in other words matter without matter in other words again matter no more in sinking into unity it will sink at once into that nothingness which to all finite perception unity must be into that material nihility from which alone we can conceive it to have been evoked to have been created by the volition of god gravity therefore must be the strongest of forces see page repeat then let us endeavor to comprehend that the final globe of globes will instantaneously disappear and that god will remain all in all but are we here to pause not so on the universal agglomeration and dissolution we can readily conceive that new and perhaps totally different series of conditions may ensue another creation and irradiation returning into itself another action and rëaction of the divine will guiding our imaginations by that omniprevalent law of laws the law of periodicity are we not indeed more than justified in entertaining belief let us say rather in indulging hope that the processes we have here ventured to contemplate will be renewed forever and forever and forever novel universe swelling into existence and then subsiding into nothingness at every throb of the heart divine and now this heart divine what is it it is our own let not the merely seeming irreverence of this idea frighten our souls from that cool exercise of consciousness from that deep tranquillity of self-inspection through which alone we can hope to attain the presence of this the most sublime of truths and look it leisurely in the face the phænomena on which our conclusions must at this point depend are merely spiritual shadows but not the less thoroughly substantial we walk about amid the destinies of our world-existence encompassed by dim but ever present memories of destiny more vast very distant in the by-gone time and infinitely awful we live out youth peculiarly haunted by such dreams yet never mistaking them for dreams as memories we know them during our youth the distinction is too clear to deceive us even for moment so long as this youth endures the feeling that we exist is the most natural of all feelings we understand it thoroughly that there was period at which we did not exist or that it might so have happened that we never had existed at all are the considerations indeed which during this youth we find difficulty in understanding why we should not exist is up to the epoch of our manhood of all queries the most unanswerable existence self-existence existence from all time and to all eternity seems up to the epoch of manhood normal and unquestionable condition seems because it is but now comes the period at which conventional world-reason awakens us from the truth of our dream doubt surprise and incomprehensibility arrive at the same moment they say you live and the time was when you lived not you have been created an intelligence exists greater than your own and it is only through this intelligence you live at all these things we struggle to comprehend and cannot cannot because these things being untrue are thus of necessity incomprehensible no thinking being lives who at some luminous point of his life of thought has not felt himself lost amid the surges of futile efforts at understanding or believing that anything exists greater than his own soul the utter impossibility of any one’s soul feeling itself inferior to another the intense overwhelming dissatisfaction and rebellion at the thought these with the omniprevalent aspirations at perfection are but the spiritual coincident with the material struggles towards the original unity are to my mind at least species of proof far surpassing what man terms demonstration that no one soul is inferior to another that nothing is or can be superior to any one soul that each soul is in part its own god its own creator in word that god the material and spiritual god now exists solely in the diffused matter and spirit of the universe and that the regathering of this diffused matter and spirit will be but the re-constitution of the purely spiritual and individual god in this view and in this view alone we comprehend the riddles of divine injustice of inexorable fate in this view alone the existence of evil becomes intelligible but in this view it becomes more it becomes endurable our souls no longer rebel at sorrow which we ourselves have imposed upon ourselves in furtherance of our own purposes with view if even with futile view to the extension of our own joy have spoken of memories that haunt us during our youth they sometimes pursue us even in our manhood assume gradually less and less indefinite shapes now and then speak to us with low voices saying there was an epoch in the night of time when still-existent being existed one of an absolutely infinite number of similar beings that people the absolutely infinite domains of the absolutely infinite space it was not and is not in the power of this being any more than it is in your own to extend by actual increase the joy of his existence but just as it is in your power to expand or to concentrate your pleasures the absolute amount of happiness remaining always the same so did and does similar capability appertain to this divine being who thus passes his eternity in perpetual variation of concentrated self and almost infinite self-diffusion what you call the universe is but his present expansive existence he now feels his life through an infinity of imperfect pleasures the partial and pain-intertangled pleasures of those inconceivably numerous things which you designate as his creatures but which are really but infinite individualizations of himself all these creatures all those which you term animate as well as those to whom you deny life for no better reason than that you do not behold it in operation all these creatures have in greater or less degree capacity for pleasure and for pain but the general sum of their sensations is precisely that amount of happiness which appertains by right to the divine being when concentrated within himself these creatures are all too more or less conscious intelligences conscious first of proper identity conscious secondly and by faint indeterminate glimpses of an identity with the divine being of whom we speak of an identity with god of the two classes of consciousness fancy that the former will grow weaker the latter stronger during the long succession of ages which must elapse before these myriads of individual intelligences become blended when the bright stars become blended into one think that the sense of individual identity will be gradually merged in the general consciousness that man for example ceasing imperceptibly to feel himself man will at length attain that awfully triumphant epoch when he shall recognize his existence as that of jehovah in the meantime bear in mind that all is life life life within life the less within the greater and all within the spirit divine see pages paragraph commencing reply that the right and ending proper and particular god the end