316 LAUGEL'S PROBLEMS OF NATURE AXD LIFE. 



problems to us for future solution which Swift would 

 have related as the reveries of Laputan philosophy. 

 The Cavendishes and Wollastons of a prior generation, 

 who shrunk back with a certain distrust arid alarm 

 even from their own discoveries, are now nowhere to 

 be found. It may be admitted that many of what 

 once appeared insuperable barriers have been removed, 

 and that it is frequently as rash in science to impose 

 limits as to seek to penetrate beyond them. Yet the 

 few single words, Space, Time, Matter, Force, Motion, 

 and Life, bring us into direct contact with problems 

 which, though based on innumerable phenomena, 

 forming the totality of our physical knowledge, leave 

 reason utterly at fault. Take, for instance, the old 

 question regarding that very Matter itself, which we 

 are now so boldly handling, through the properties of 

 its ultimate atoms and molecules. Is it actually 

 created by the same Supreme Power which formed it 

 into worlds and living existences ? Or is it in itself 

 eternal the primitive material with which the Creator 

 has thus wonderfully worked in evoking all that we 

 see in the universe around us ? It is obvious that 

 reason is vainly spent in seeking to encounter a ques- 

 tion where, though one of the alternatives must neces- 

 sarily be true> no proof or argument can possibly be 

 brought to determine which is so. 



The same with regard to the Infinite, whether of 

 space, time, or number. The mathematician may 

 give technical expression to it, in certain forms to 

 which his science conducts him, and the metaphysician 

 may revel in the very vagueness of the conceptions it 



