First Causes. 23 



infinite were it linear or drawn out to an end — an 

 end that could be understood — for the characteristic 

 quality of an end is its juxta-position to the beginning 

 of something else. Infinite, therefore, must be, as an 

 absolute, cyclic, or in a cycle : that is, from infinity 

 to infinity. In other words, infinity is a circle, a mere 

 whirl of evolutions whose ends are but other begin- 

 nings, and whose beginnings are but other ends ; 

 thus practically containing neither beginnings nor 

 ends. Any other definition of infinite would be 

 finity. 



In infinity looms a world of shadow called the 

 unknown, the unread, or the unlearned, an incognita 

 daily vanishing as its wrung-out secrets are added to 

 our stores of knowledge. In this unknown, as Pasteur 

 and the orthodox confidently assert, dwells a First 

 Cause ; but it is there, like a hidden fetich, only to 

 the ignorant and the credulous. All the wonders, 

 productions, forces, and so-called inexplicable pheno- 

 mena in nature attributed to supernatural causes are, 

 as overwhelming evidence demonstrates, merely the 

 ever-cycling effects of eternal natural laws, working 

 through ceaseless motions inherent in the very con- 

 stitution of existence itself — indestructible matter-in- 

 motion. 



Assuming the infinite to be, as we allege, only an 

 extension of the finite, if we worship the infinite or 

 anything in it, we practically worship the finite. But, 

 what section of the finite would it be most reasonable 

 to worship— the known or the unknown? " The un- 



