PHYSIOLOGY OF LIFE. 53 



and have their being ; while the equal mystery of Time 

 bears the same relation to his Eternity, or what is fully 

 equivalent, his Unity. 



Physiologically contemplated, Nature begins, proceeds, 

 and ends in a contradiction ; for the moment of absolute 

 solution would be that in which Nature would cease to 

 be Nature, i. e. a scheme of ever- varying relations ; and 

 physiology, in the ambitious attempt to solve phenomena 

 into absolute realities, would itself become a mere web of 

 verbal abstractions. 



But it is in strict connexion with our subject, that we 

 should make the universal FORMS as well as the not less 

 universal LAW of Life, clear and intelligible in the example 

 of Time and Space, these being both the first specification 

 of the principle, and ever after its indispensable symbols. 

 First, a single act of self-inquiry will show the impossi- 

 bility of distinctly conceiving the one without some invo- 

 lution of the other; either time expressed in space, in 

 the form of the mathematical line, or space within time, 

 as in the circle. But to form the first conception of a 

 real thing, we state both as one in the idea, duration. 

 The formula is: A=B-(-B=A=A=A, or the oneness 

 of space and time, is the predicate of all real being. 



But as little can we conceive the oneness, except as 

 the mid-point producing itself on each side ; that is, 

 manifesting itself on two opposite poles. Thus, from 

 identity we derive duality, and from both together we 

 obtain polarity, synthesis, indifference, predominance. 

 The line is Time -f- Space, under the predominance of 

 Time : Surface is Space -j- Time, under the predominance 

 of Space, while Line -|- Surface as the synthesis of 



