10 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



take an ordinary opera glass. We select almost any 

 spot in the heavens. We look, by means of the instru- 

 ment, at that one visible star which we see by the 

 naked eye. The instrument immediately tells a tale. 

 There is seen not one star, but 'several. What 

 have we done ? Simply amplified the human power 

 of vision, put, as it were, a compound artificial lens 

 to the lens of the eye, and the apparent confines of 

 space go further away. Again we repeat the experi- 

 ment, we look through the finder of a small astronomical 

 telescope. New stars new suns, open into view. We 

 look into the instrument itself, and many stars are seen 

 until with the largest instruments an absolutely lumin- 

 ous background of suns appears. And so, as we go on 

 increasing our power of penetration, does space expand, 

 and there can be no doubt that as we are able to increase 

 that power, so will new and more distant objects come 

 into view. New to us, but old, old as eternity, at least 

 to our minds Eternity. 



What do these experiments teach ? Only one deduc- 

 tion, namely, Space is Infinite. 1 



It does not want a telescope to tell us that this 

 deduction is true. Our minds are so framed that we 

 can conceive no other issue. Suppose the heavens were 

 a spherical canopy or boundary, inside which the stars 



to produce a derangement of the heavens large enough to be dis- 

 cernible by unassisted observation." (" In the High Heavens," Sir 

 B. S. Ball, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S., 1894, p. 11.) 



1 ' We cannot think of space as finite, for wherever in imagination 

 we erect a boundary, we are compelled to think of space as existing 

 beyond it. Thus by the incessant dissolution of limits we arrive at a 

 more or less adequate idea of the infinity of space." ('' On the 

 constitution of Nature," " Fragments of Science." John Tyndall 

 F.R.S. Vol. i. ? 1879, p. 3.) 



