96 TWO NEW WORLDS 



sheet. Why should we draw the line before Nature 

 draws it for us ? 



For an average span of some thirty to fifty years 

 we are landed on this particular planet, and pro- 

 vided with the necessary organs to carry on a 

 certain average set of activities. When we are 

 withdrawn from this world we may have other 

 senses, organs, and activities. The change will be 

 great and far-reaching, and may, for aught we know, 

 cut off all communication between us and the 

 visible universe. We may be landed in some other 

 link of the chain of worlds, or in an entirely different 

 kind of world. That reflection should prevent our 

 having any hesitation to postulate the unity and 

 sameness of the universe accessible to our present 

 set of senses. There is quite enough liberty in 

 store for us without looking to the distant stars and 

 the high heavens for it. In assuming, therefore, 

 the essential sameness of the visible universe 

 throughout all possible magnitudes, and, as a corol- 

 lary, its eternity and infinite stability, we are not 

 renouncing all higher states of existence, nor con- 

 fining our future life to an endless repetition of 

 accustomed detail and drudgery. All we postulate 

 is that the present world is uniform in space and 

 time. Of all possible worlds in which we might 

 (and may yet) be placed, it is for us here and now 

 the most worthy of investigation. Our sense of 

 unity demands that it should have an absolute and 



