AND THEORY OF THE HEAVENS 139 



that in order to think of it as in proportion to the power 

 of the Infinite Being, it must have no limits at all. We 

 come no nearer the infinitude of the creative power of 

 God, if we enclose the space of its revelation within a 

 sphere described with the radius of the Milky Way, than 

 if we were to limit it to a ball an inch in diameter. 

 All that is finite, whatever has limits and a definite relation 

 to unity, is equally far removed from the infinite. Now, 

 it would be absurd to represent the Deity as passing into 

 action with an infinitely small part of His potency, and 

 to think of His Infinite Power the storehouse of a true 

 immensity of natures and worlds as inactive, and as shut 

 up eternally in a state of not being exercised. Is it not 

 much more reasonable, or, to say it better, is it not 

 necessary to represent the system of creation as it must 

 be in order to be a witness of that power which cannot 

 be measured by any standard ? For this reason the field 

 of the revelation of the Divine attributes is as infinite as 

 these attributes themselves. 1 Eternity is not sufficient to 



1 The conception of an infinite extension of the world finds opponents 

 among the metaphysicians, and has lately found one in M. Weiten- 

 kampf. If these gentlemen, on account of the supposed impossibility 

 of a quantity without number and limits, cannot accommodate them- 

 selves to this idea, I would only ask in the meantime the question: 

 Whether the future succession of Eternity will not embrace in it a 

 true infinitude of multiplicities and changes, and whether this infinite 

 series is not now already wholly present at once to the Divine 

 intelligence ? Now, if it was possible that God could make the con- 

 ception of the infinitude which presents itself at once to His under- 

 standing, real in a series of facts following each other in succession, 

 why should He not be able to exhibit the conception of another 

 infinitude in a combined connection in space, and thereby make the 

 extension of the world without limits? While any one is trying to 

 answer this question, I will use the opportunity which may be furnished, 

 to remove the supposed difficulty by an elucidation drawn from the 



