TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION Ixxxix 



so vividly depicted by Lucretius, of a succession of 

 finite worlds, each arising, like the Phrenix, out of a 

 death and dissolution of the former, and containing in 

 it, in new combination and form, the same eternal 

 material atoms. Kant, indeed, powerfully describes 

 the dissolution and palingenesis of worlds, but all this 

 is only hypothetical ; his theoretical analysis of the 

 existing system could not actually carry him beyond 

 its initial Chaos. He could not but see, even then, 

 that an infinite succession of worlds, under reference 

 only to themselves, is unthinkable, and that any 

 attempt to explain things on that basis is but reason- 

 ing in a circle, and holds no real explanation in 

 it. But the scientific resources of the time could 

 carry him no further. 



It was reserved for the nineteenth century to 

 take up the ultimate problem of the Pre-nebular 

 Condition of Matter^ and we cannot blame Kant in 

 any way for stopping where he did. This ultimate 

 problem, indeed, has only been taken up of late 

 years, and we are just beginning to reach some 

 tentative solutions of it. It evidently involves the 

 fundamental questions of the genesis of the chemical 

 elements, the formation of material particles, the 

 ultimate constitution of all matter, and the mode 

 of its primordial distribution and arrangement in 

 space ; and all these questions ultimately run up 

 into the question of the Ether as the primary basis 

 and constituent, in its modified forms, of the material 

 universe. It is not necessary to enter here upon 



