128 ASSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



For, first, the chain of causation cannot in fact 

 run backwards infinitely, but must at some time 

 or other have absolutely begun; and it must break 

 off its retrograde in logic as well as in time — 

 must cease in respect to "grounds" as well as in 

 reference to "causes." For real causation belongs 

 only to events and change, not to Being and iden- 

 tity, and hence there must come a point where the 

 questions What caused it and Why are finally 

 silenced, else there would be nothing absolute ; 

 whereas tJie tinderived necessity of Being, and of its 

 elements mid laws, is the first condition for a rational 

 view of the zvorld. 



Secondly, it is quite as clear that real time cannot 

 be infinite ; for real time is nothing but the total 

 duration of causal changes, and to suppose this infinite 

 tvould, reckoning backwards, make the beginning of 

 causation, just fioiu established, close aji infinite 

 duration. 



Finally, real space is manifestly just the extent 

 of the sum-total of atoms ; and this must be finite, 

 because the number of atoms is necessarily definite ; 

 for, if it were not, the Actual of perception, as a 

 series of changes by definite combination, would be 

 impossible. 



Real or objective space, time, and causation are 

 thus all finite ; the persuasion that they are in- 

 finite, with all the consequent array of counter- 



