EXTRACT VII. 



CONTINUITY AND CONTINUANCE, OR EVERLASTING- 

 NESS. (AS SEEN IN THE ULTIMATE ESSENCES OF 

 HUMAN KNOWLEDGE, I.E. IN MATTER, FORCE OR 

 ENERGY, AND LIFE, AND IN ALL THE PROCESSES 

 AND CONDITIONS THROUGH WHICH THESE HAVE 

 SEVERALLY PASSED, ARE PASSING, AND, IN ALL 

 REASONING FROM ANALOGY, THROUGH WHICH 

 THEY WILL PASS.) 



CONTINUITY in the physical universe is everywhere evi- 

 dent, the occasional hiatus to be observed in its various 

 elements, structures, and processes notwithstanding ; in 

 fact, that occasional hiatus is but apparent, not real, 

 when the whole is viewed in its natural perspective and 

 sequence, and at a distance sufficient to ensure or to 

 afford a clear view on a large scale. Continuity has 

 characterised the history and evolution of that universe, 

 so far as can be realised by the senses and appreciated 

 by the intellect of its best readers and interpreters, and, 

 for the greater part, it is written in such legible characters 

 that " he who runneth may read," so much so, that we 

 hear the same story repeated by such different authorities 

 as the physicist, who has received his information from an 

 examination of the material and forces of nature, the 

 biologist, who has "tested and tried" the organic develop- 

 ments around, on, and in the surface of the globe, and 

 the astronomer, who has derived his information from an 

 exploration of the visible heavens. In short, the simple 

 enumeration of the primary elements of the earth's crust, 

 its organic remains and living forms, and the stellar 



