LAUGEL'S PROBLEMS OF NATURE AND LIFE. 315 



in themselves, cannot be compassed by thought, and 

 lie, therefore, beyond the scope of human research. 

 In every enquiry we are bound to regard primarily 

 what has been done, and what yet remains to be done. 

 But also it is well to know and ever hold in mind the 

 existence of these unknowable realities a caution hap- 

 pily expressed by Malebranche, the most eminent 

 disciple of Descartes : ' II est bon de comprendre 

 clairement qu'il y a des choses qui sont absolument 

 incomprehensibles.' It is into their unfathomable 

 depths that the metaphysical mind loves to dive ; 

 bringing back little more than a new coinage of words 

 and phrases, more fitted to entangle and delude the 

 understanding than to enlighten it. Speculations and 

 reveries of this kind, indeed, are most prone to grow 

 up where science has not yet begun to work by expe- 

 rimental research. The ancient philosophers, Greek 

 and Eoman, entertained them as a sort of intellectual 

 luxury ; those of mediaeval time as a cloister occupa- 

 tion and refuge from the barbarism surrounding them. 

 Even the most savage races of men cling to such ques- 

 tions, in rude expression of their wonder at those mys- 

 terious changes and convulsions of the material world 

 to which they, in common with the philosopher, are 

 unceasingly subjected. 



We dwell the rather upon this point because the 

 physical science of our day is marked especially by its 

 close approach to these insoluble questions. Modern 

 discovery, whether dealing with the infinitely great or 

 the infinitesiinally small, whether with stars or atoms, 

 has been emboldened by its own success, and presents 



