32 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



from the central point of observation over the 

 extent of co-existent things, so doubtful as to be value- 

 less. The error has enlarged at every step, while the 

 truth has remained a fixed quantity. 



(3.) A further source of error presents itself when, 

 we bring into view the fact, that as nature stretches 

 out of view beyond us in time and space, so it passes 

 out of view beneath us in indiscernible minuteness. 

 The instrumental aid by which the physicist brings 

 within the range of observation a vast extent of phe- 

 nomena, imperceptible to unaided sense, has revealed 

 at the same time regions still more minute, forming a 

 part of the concrete whole, whose law science under- 

 takes to expound. These infinitesimal forms of exis- 

 tence are beyond the reach of observation " monads,, 

 compared with which a grain of sand is an earth."* 

 But they are an integral part of the world we know. 

 It is made up of them. They are factors, it may be 

 the most important factors, in the processes of change.. 

 Our rude manipulation leaves them in every experi- 

 ment untouched. Too subtile to be apprehended, they 

 are none the less potent. What part they have played, 

 or may play, in the drama whose movement philo- 

 sophy would formulate, we can never learn. They 

 may have been the leading actors in former scenes. 

 In omitting them when we write out the plot, we 

 may be leaving out the Hamlet of the play. This, at 



* Spencer : Psych. Vol. II., Part VII., Chap. II. 



