616 Dn. WHEWELL'S SECOND MEMOIR ON THE 



less large and striking ; and that if we take into our account, (as, in forming an Idea of the Course 

 of the Universe, we must do,) not only vegetable and animal, but also human life, this other Idea 

 appears likely to take into it a far larger portion of the known Facts, than the Idea of the Nebular 

 Hypothesis. The other Idea which I speak of is the Idea of Man as the principal Object in the 

 Creation ; to whose sustenance and developement the other parts of the Universe are subservient as 

 means to an end ; and although, in our attempts to include all known Facts in this Idea, we again 

 meet with many difficulties, and find many trains of Facts which have no apparent congruity with 

 the Idea ; yet we may say that, taking into account the Facts of man's intellectual and moral con- 

 dition, and his history, as well as the mere Facts of the material world, the difficulties and apparent 

 incongruities are far less when we attempt to idealize the Facts by reference to this Idea, of Man as 

 the End of Creation, than according to the other Idea, of the World as the result of Nebular Con- 

 densation, without any conceivable End or Purpose. I am now, of course, merely comparing these 

 two views of the Universe, as supposed steps in science, according to the general notion which I 

 have just been endeavouring to explain, that a step in science is some Idealization of Facts. 



39. Perhaps it will be objected, that what I have said of the Idealization of Facts, as the 

 manner in which the progress of science goes on, amounts to no more than the usual expres- 

 sions, .that the progress of science consists in reducing Facts to Theories. And to this I reply, 

 that the advantage at which I aim, by the expression which I have used, is this, to remind 

 the reader — that Fact and Theory, in every subject, are not marked by separate and promi- 

 nent features of difference, but only by their pi'esent opposition, which is a transient rela- 

 tion. They are related to each other no otherwise than as the poles of the fundamental anti- 

 thesis; the point which separate those poles shifts with every advance of science; and then, 

 what was Theory becomes Fact. As I have already said, elsewhere, a true Theory is a Fact; 

 a Fact is a familiar Theory. If we bear this in mind, we express the view on which I am 

 now insisting when we say that the progress of science consists in reducing Facts to Theories. 

 Hut I think that speaking of Ideas as opposed to Facts, we express more pointedly the original 

 Antithesis, and the subsequent identification of the Facts with the Idea. The expression appears 

 to be simple and apt, when we sav, for instance, that the Facts of Geography are identified with 

 the Idea of the globular Earth; the Facts of Planetary Astronomy with the Idea of the Helio- 

 centric system ; and ultimately, with the Idea of universal Gravitation. 



40. We may further remark, that though by successive steps in science, successive Facts 

 are reduced to Ideas, this process can never be complete. However the point may shift which 

 sepai'ates the two poles, the two poles will always remain. However far the ideal element may 

 extend, there will always be something beyond it. However far the phenomena may he ideal- 

 ized, there will always remain a portion which are not idealized, and which are mere pheno- 

 mena. This also is implied by making our expressions refer to the fundamental antithesis : 

 for because the antithesis is fundamental, its two elements will always be present ; the objective 

 as well as the subjective. And thus, in the contemplation of the universe, however much 

 we understand, there must always be something which we do not understand; however far 

 we may trace necessary truths, there must always be things which are to our apprehension 

 arbitrary : however far we may extend the sphere of our internal world, in which we feel 

 power and see light, it must always be surrounded by our external world, in which we see 

 no light, and only feel resistance. Our subjective being is inclosed in an objective shell, which, 

 though it seems to yield to our efforts, continues entire and impenetrable beyond our reach, and 

 even enlarges in its extent while it appears to give up to us a portion of its substance. 



