24 HOW THE UNIVEBSE IS KNOWABLE. 



and systematize the General Principles of Universal 

 Being, carrying their application, in turn, into no 

 more than the appropriate degree of minuteness in 

 Branching and Distribution. It is not the Univer- 

 sality of Fads (which are indeed infinitely numerous), 

 but the Universality of Principles which are infinitely 

 unific or simple, which has to be discovered and ex- 

 hibited. 



33. There is a sense, then, in which a knowledge 

 of the whole Universe is impossible to any finite in- 

 telligence ; but there is also another sense in which 

 such knowledge is possible. We cannot know the 

 Universe in detail, but there is no reason why we 

 may not know it in respect to the universality of its 

 Laws, if we can be so fortunate as to discover Laws 

 which are Universal, as well as exhaustive (that is to 

 say exclusive of the possibility of any other Laws) ; 

 and which shall be absolutely 'known to be such, because 

 they are of such a nature, that, when discovered and 

 clearly propounded and apprehended, it becomes im- 

 possible to conceive of them as otherwise than as True, 

 Universal, and Exhaustive. 



34. It is in a manner similar to this that a True 

 Universal Alphabet would apply to the spelling of 

 the words of all languages ; because so long as 

 men's mouths are formed according to the fixed type 

 of the human mouth, (as we know it to be), they 

 produce a certain few Elementary Sounds (and only 

 these), which are then constantly repeated, in new 

 combinations, ia all that men ever say or can MU/. It 

 is, also, in a similar manner, that employing so few 



