COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



quiries into the proximate origin of organic life 

 in exactly the same terms in which he condemns 

 inquiries into the ultimate origin of the uni- 

 verse. He could not have done this had he 

 perceived that the latter question is forever in- 

 soluble because it involves absolute beginning ; 

 whereas the former is merely a question of a 

 particular combination of molecules, which we 

 cannot solve at present only because we have 

 not yet obtained the requisite knowledge of the 

 interactions of molecular forces, and of the past 

 physical condition of the earth's surface. In 

 short, he would have seen that, while the Jiu- 

 man mind is utterly impotent in the presence 

 of noumena, it is well-nigh omnipotent in the 

 presence of phenomena. In science we may 

 be said to advance by geometrical progression. 

 Here, in the forty years which have elapsed 

 since Comte wrote on physical science, it is 

 hardly extravagant to say that the progress has 

 been as great as during the seventeen hundred 

 years between Hipparchos and Galileo. If then, 

 in the three or four thousand years which have 

 elapsed since Europe began to emerge from 

 utter barbarism, we have reached a point at 

 which we can begin to describe the chemical 

 constitution of a heavenly body seventy thou- 

 sand million miles distant, what may not science 

 be destined to achieve in the next four thousand 

 or forty thousand years ? We may rest assured 

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