COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



discovery is on a par with Newton's. Indeed, 

 by the time this treatise is concluded, we may 

 perhaps see reasons for regarding it as, in the 

 latter respect, the superior of the two. 



To give anything like an adequate idea of 

 the extent and importance of this discovery, or 

 of the enormous mass of inductive evidence 

 which joins with deduction in establishing it, is 

 of course impracticable within the limits of a 

 single chapter. We must be content for the 

 present with exhibiting a rude outline-sketch 

 of its most conspicuous features, leaving it for 

 the succeeding series of discussions to finish the 

 picture. Let us begin by briefly summing up 

 the results already obtained. 



It has been shown that the coexistence of an- 

 tagonist forces throughout the knowable uni- 

 verse necessitates a universal rhythm of motion; 

 and that in proportion to the number of forces 

 anywhere concerned in producing a given set of 

 motions, the resulting rhythms are complex. It 

 has been further shown that, save where the 

 rhythms are absolutely simple — a case which 

 is never actually realized — there must occur a 

 redistribution of matter and motion as the result 

 of each rhythm. It next appeared that such a 

 redistribution involves on the one hand an inte- 

 gration of matter, which implies a concomitant 

 dissipation of motion, and on the other hand a 

 disintegration of matter, which implies a con- 

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