398 THE WORLD MACHINE 



through a moment of cosmic time, then to go dark until through 

 a process of fertilisation and rebirth they blink and gleam 

 again in unending cycles. The suggestion is but a fancy. The 

 problem is transcendent. We do not know ; it is possible 

 that we never shall. 



Probably it is among the naivetes of our intellectual child- 

 hood to suppose that the pursuit of the scientific method will 

 ever bring us any nearer to the ultimate mystery of creation 

 than were the favoured children of Hebraic tradition. Doubtless, 

 no more complete illusion ever possessed the human mind than 

 that through its operations we may penetrate the origin of 

 things. So far from reading any Reason or Intelligence into 

 this strange wentle-trap of a world, the amazing insight into its 

 more concrete processes, its mechanical device, which the last 

 few centuries have brought, leads to utter bewilderment; it 

 seems to the initiate eye yet stranger, yet more mystic, more 

 unthinkable, more unbelievable, than ever. 



The conception of a creative Being was simple perhaps, in 

 the mists of primitive ignorance, imaginable. This is true no 

 longer. Our modern knowledge has pushed back immeasurably 

 the limits of the world ; it has disclosed the immeasurable 

 duration of time. It has given us a rational account of the 

 planet on which we live, the system of which we form a part. 

 It has indicated a probable origin and a probable end. In some 

 relative sense we know where we are; in some relative sense 

 we know how we came to be here ; in some sense we know less 

 than ever why. What is still more, we know now that we do 

 not know, and that in all finite probability we never can. 



The cosmic structure may be for ever beyond our human 

 ken, alike with cosmic ends and cosmic aims. There may be 

 limits beyond which we cannot pass. But the area within 

 these limits is vast field enough for a splendid human work. 

 We have learned to know the processes of human birth, the 

 course of human evolution. We have learned to know in its 

 larger outlines of the evolution of worlds. If the grandeur 

 of our thoughts be measured by the immensities of space and 

 time which they cover, surely no human thought has ever 

 reached nearer to the essence of sublimity than this. We have 

 cast aside the heavy trammels of our daily cares and daily needs 

 to search for cosmic order ; let us turn to view the ways of 

 cosmic time. 



