I 



THE SCIENTIFIC CONTRADICTIONS OF INFINITY. 255 



tacitly assumes that It is possible to speak of the 

 universe as an Infinite whole possessing Infinite 

 energy. Hence our present physics cannot evade 

 the Inference that the energy of any finite part of 

 the world must be undergoing gradual dissipation, 

 and would have been entirely dissipated, If It had 

 ^^xlsted Infinitely In the past. And as this has not 

 ^^s a matter of fact happened, the conclusion Is that 

 the world with Its store of energy, which Is now 

 being dissipated, came Into being at some definite 

 point In the past. In order, therefore, to assert the 

 real Infinity of Space, the facts of the world and the 

 principles of science compel us to deny Its Infinity 

 In Time, and to Infer both a beginning of the 

 existence of energy and an end, In Its Inevitable 

 dissipation. Science, In short, must be consistent 

 and treat the Infinite extension of Space as it has 

 already treated Its Infinite divisibility. In idea 

 Space is not only infinite but infinitely divisible ; in 

 reality science posits the atom as the indivisible 

 minimum of spatially-extended reality. If there- 

 fore science is entitled to assume a ^ninimum of 

 material reality and to reject the reality of the infini- 

 tesimal, it is by a parity of reasoning entitled to 

 postulate also a maxi7iiu?n extent of the world and 

 to reject the reality of the infinite. 



Further, it was shown in ch. HI. § 8 that the in- 

 finity of Space contradicted the reality of motion 

 and hence of energy, and scepticism inferred from 

 this the illusorlness of the latter. But we may 

 equally well infer the Illusoriness of infinity, and 

 when science is reduced to a choice between the 

 reality of energy and the reality of infinity, it cannot 

 for a moment hesitate to reject the latter. 



But if science must reject the infinity of Space it 



