INFINITY ALWAYS IDEAL A DEFECT OF THOUGHT. 249 



§ 5. Now does the infinity of Space resemble 

 the vaHd negative, or the invahd positive conception 

 _of infinity ? 



There is no need to regard it as anything but the 

 [former. We need not mean by the infinity of Space 

 ^anything more than that we cannot thmk a limit to 

 Space, can conceive no space which is not bounded 

 iby spaces, and similarly in the case of Time ; we 

 can conceive no time which was not preceded by 

 Ian earlier time. 



It is evident that this infinity is purely conceptual 

 .nd negative. No man has ever found by ex- 

 [perience that Space and Time have no limits. The 

 infinity of Space and Time can never be given as 

 an actual fact. We can never, except in poetry, get 

 to the limits of the universe, and gaze into the Void 

 beyond, if only because of the prosaic attraction of 

 the bodies behind us. But, unfortunately, we seem 

 since the days of Aristotle to have forgotten the 

 obvious fact that infinity can never be anything real, 

 anything more than a potential infinity in our 

 thought. 



But can we argue from this potential infinity of 

 our conceptions to the infinity of the spatially 

 extended world, and of the Becoming in Time .^ 

 This would seem to be an argument based upon 

 hazardous assumptions and resulting in inextricable 

 difficulties. 



; 6. It involves, in the first place, a relapse into 

 rthe illegitimate conception of infinity as something 

 )Ositive and actual, if it is to state facts about the 

 real world and not to make correct but useless state- 

 ments about our subjective frame of mind. For 

 Awhile we adhere to the true definition of infinity, the 

 proposition that the world is infinite in Space and 



