240 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



was a beginning of time, or there was no 

 beginning ; either there will be an end of 

 time, or there will be no end. So with 

 space : either there is a point beyond which 

 there is nothing not even vacancy or 

 there is no such point. 



Now our rninds refuse to accept either 

 time or space with a limit beyond which it 

 does not extend. They ask forever, What 

 is beyond ? In like manner, they refuse 

 to accept anything which is interminable. 

 Even a future state of existence, which goes 

 on and on, and yet again on, becomes a 

 horror to thought, if dwelt upon, not only 

 because the feeling of change and rest is 

 sweet, but because we are bound to ask, 

 When will the end come ? And what conies 

 after the end ? We look into space and can 

 neither imagine a limit beyond which the line 

 cannot extend, nor can we imagine unlimited 

 extension of the line. Why, then, do we 

 properly feel satisfied that certain things are 

 facts, and chide him who says, &quot; I believe, 

 because it is impossible&quot; ? Because in the 

 field of relative knowledge which we have 

 investigated, we have accumulated a vast 

 hoard of antecedents and consequents, which 

 we have formulated into what we call laws 

 of nature, and it is in this field that we are 



