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INFINITY ETERNITY THE UNTHINKABLE. 



THREE words of great import in every sense, and 

 having a common relation to the most profound objects 

 of human thought ! It is a German poet who some- 

 where prays to be saved from the harassing notion of 

 Infinity, and not without cause for the wish, since the 

 fact or idea expressed by this single word marks the 

 barrier before which reason recoils in awe and despair. 

 Whether space, time, or number be concerned, an 

 argument trenching on this attribute of infinity is at 

 once arrested, and no subtlety of words or thought can 

 carry it farther. The phraseology of common speech, 

 and even of grave doctrine, does indeed often employ 

 the word, but in some cases mischievously, and never 

 with any reality to the understanding. 



It is one of the tests of true philosophy to know 

 when this barrier of the Infinite has been reached. 

 Between the infinitely great and the infinitely small 

 the celestial distances and magnitudes, and the atoms 

 and atomical actions of matter we stand on a middle 

 ground, closed at each end, yet spacious enough for 

 the largest intellect and genius to work in. Then 

 again as to time. The moment of present being lies 

 between the infinite past and the infinite future equi- 

 distant from both in the sole sense we can give to what 



