VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 277 



that to an intelligence surpassing ours in degree 

 only, that may be easy which is impossible to 

 us. The child who cannot count beyond four, 

 the savage who has no name for any number 

 above five, cannot comprehend the possibility of 

 dealing with thousands and millions : yet a little 

 additional developement of the intellect makes 

 such numbers conceivable and manageable. The 

 difficulty which appears to reside in numbers 

 and magnitudes and stages of subordination, is 

 one produced by judging from ourselves by 

 measuring with our own sounding line; when 

 that reaches no bottom, the ocean appears un- 

 fathomable. Yet in fact how is a hundred 

 millions of miles a great distance ? how is a hun- 

 dred millions of times a great ratio ? Not in itself; 

 this greatness is no quality of the numbers which 

 can be proved like their mathematical properties ; 

 on the contrary, all that absolutely belongs to 

 number, space, and ratio, must, we know de- 

 monstrably, be equally true of the largest and the 

 smallest. It is clear that the greatness of these 

 expressions of measure has reference to our 

 faculties only. Our astonishment and embarrass- 

 ment take for granted the limits of our own 

 nature. We have a tendency to treat a difference 

 of degree and of addition, as if it were a difference 

 of kind and of transformation. The existence of 

 the attributes, design, power, goodness, is a 

 matter depending on obvious grounds : about 

 these qualities there can be no mistake : if we 



