160 The Three Beginnings. 



ever from being able to make a "beginning." 

 That theory requires not merely matter, but 

 matter in motion. Not merely matter in mass, 

 but matter in its constituent atoms. Matter so 

 minutely subdivided as to be immeasurably 

 beyond the sphere of visibility ; and yet matter 

 not within the sphere of infinite divisibi- 

 lity. "The atoms " are " the first beginnings." l 

 But speculation is at fault as to the mode in 

 which, or the power by which, they "first began." 

 In his panegyric on Lucretius, Professor Tyndall 

 draws special attention to his " strong scientific 

 imagination ; " 3 and tells us that " his vaguely 

 grand conception of the atoms falling eternally 

 through space suggested the nebular hypothesis 

 to Kant, its first propounder." 3 The "eternity" 

 of these falling atoms, however, must not be 

 confounded with the antecedent " eternity " of 

 their origination. Like the " eternity " of the 

 rhetorical preacher, 4 it has its own statute of 

 limitations. It came to an end. While it 

 lasted there might have been seen, " far beyond 

 the limits of our visible world" (by aid of a 



"Belfast Address,"?. 8. 

 Ibid, p. 9. 



3 Ibid., p. 10. 



4 Eternity : " An infinite candle ; lighted at both 



