COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



known physical properties of the universe, but 

 of which the stupendous grandeur is such as to 

 baffle the most strenuous efforts alike of reason 

 and of imagination to follow it out in all its 

 concrete details. Thus, too, we find ourselves 

 amply rewarded for the hope with which we set 

 out upon our inquiry, — namely, that in hence- 

 forth abandoning vain ontological speculation 

 we were by no means about to dethrone Philo- 

 sophy, but were on the point of winning for it 

 even a goodlier realm than that which meta- 

 physics had assigned to it. For in compar- 

 ison with the sublime synthesis of truths which 

 the foregoing chapters have but unworthily in- 

 terpreted, all previous philosophic speculation 

 seems fragmentary, crude, and unsatisfying. To 

 no other theory of things yet devised by the 

 wit of man can we so well apply the enthusi- 

 astic exclamation of Giordano Bruno : " Con 

 questa filosofia I'anima mi s' aggrandisce, e mi si 

 magnifica I'intelletto." 



But while one part of our task has thus been 

 fairly accomplished, another and equally impor- 

 tant part still remains to be disposed of Ques- 

 tions have from time to time been implicitly 

 suggested, to which provisional answers must 

 be given before our Cosmic Philosophy can be 

 regarded as satisfactorily expounded, even in 

 outline. That great Doctrine, for the establish 



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