FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



INORGANIC NATURE 



THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE* 



WE cannot think of space as finite, for wherever in 

 imagination we erect a boundary, we are com- 

 pelled to think of space as existing beyond it. 

 Thus by the incessant dissolution of limits we arrive at a 

 more or less adequate idea of the infinity of space. But, 

 though compelled to think of space as unbounded, there 

 is no mental necessity compelling us to think of it either 

 as filled or empty ; whether it is so or not must be decided 

 by experiment and observation. That it is not entirely 

 void, the starry heavens declare; but the question still re- 

 mains. Are the stars themselves hung in vacuo ? Are the 

 vast regions which surround them, and across which their 

 light is propagated, absolutely empty ? A century ago the 

 answer to this question, founded on the Newtonian theory, 

 would have been, "No, for particles of light are inces- 

 santly shot through space." The reply of modern science 

 is also negative, but on different grounds. It has the best 

 possible reasons for rejecting the idea of luminiferous par- 

 ticles; but, in support of the conclusion that the celestial 



» * 'Fortnightly Review," 1865, vol. iii., p. 129. 



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