f COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. i. 



the habit of appealing? We shall soon find that the 

 problem is only shifted. As soon as we inquire into the 

 constitution of this hypothetical intermolecular fluid, we are 

 no better off than before. For we have no alternative but 

 to regard this fluid as itself an extremely rarefied form of 

 matter : since it does not perceptibly affect the weights of 

 bodies, we must regard it as possessed of a density that is 

 almost infinitesimal, — that is, its constituent particles must 

 be separated from each other by regions of empty space that 

 are even greater in proportion to the size of the particles 

 than are the spaces that intervene between the molecules of 

 that relatively dense form of matter which we call ponder- 

 able. With regard to the ether, as before with regard to the 

 matter, we have to ask, How can its particles act upon each 

 other through space that is utterly empty ? How can a thing 

 act where it is not ? How can motion be transmitted, in the 

 absence of any medium of transmission ? and to this question 

 no answer ever has been, or ever can be devised. 



Thus, whichever horn of the dilemma we take hold of, we 

 are sure to be gored by it. Whether we assume on the one 

 hand that matter is absolutely solid, or on the other hand 

 that it is absolutely porous, we are alike brought face to 

 face with questions which we can neither solve nor elude. 



If now we turn from the inquiry into the ultimate constitu- 

 tion of that matter out of which the universe is formed, and 

 inquire what was the origin of this universe, we shall find 

 ourselves plunged into still darker regions of incomprehen- 

 sibility. Eespecting the origin of the universe three verbally- 

 intelligible hypotheses may be formed. We may say, with 

 the Atheist, that the universe is self-existing ; or, with the 

 Pantheist, that it is self-created ; or, with the Theist, that it is 

 created by an external agency. Let us examine these three 

 propositions severally, not with the view of determining 

 which of them is true, but with the view of determining 

 whether any one of them is comprehensible. 



