EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION 



united the past, present, and future histories 

 into a whole." ' 



Let us not fail to note that science and ordi- 

 nary knowledge concern themselves with such 

 problems no less than philosophy ; and that in 

 seeking to formulate the past, present, and fu- 

 ture history of that aggregate of sensible pheno- 

 mena which constitutes the knowable universe, 

 philosophy transcends the sphere of science in 

 just the same way that science transcends the 

 sphere of ordinary knowledge, and in no other. 

 A large portion of that imperfectly organized 

 knowledge that serves to guide the actions even 

 of the least educated men, consists of information 

 concerning the past and future careers of the ob- 

 jects which surround them. Thus we recognize 

 the child of twenty years ago in the grown man 

 of to-day ; we know that the coat which the man 

 wears recently existed in the shape of unspun 

 and unwoven wool upon a sheep's back ; and 

 that the grass upon which this sheep fed con- 

 sisted of matter integrated by countless seeds 

 with the aid of solar radiance. And we know, 

 besides, that the man and the coat which he 

 wears, the sheep and the grass upon which it 

 feeds, must alike pass from their present state 

 of aggregation into a future state of dissolution^ 

 This kind of knowledge science is ever extend- 

 ing, as when it traces back the man and the 



i First Principles, p. 278, 

 191 



