Kfinity 

 fluence 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



338 



sider that we cannot even think of any one 

 of these realities as capable of coming to an 

 end, we may well be assured that, whatever 

 may be the limits of the human mind, they 

 certainly do not prevent us from apprehend- 

 ing infinity. On the contrary, it would rather 

 appear that this apprehension is the in- 

 variable and necessary result of every inves- 

 tigation of Nature. ARGYLL Unity of Na- 

 ture, ch. 4, p. 84. (Burt.) 



1655. INFINITY NOT AN OBJECT 

 OF WORSHIP Infinite Space, Time, Num- 

 ber Not Religious Misfortune of Ambigu- 

 ity. The phrase, now often used to express 

 the objects of religious thought and feel- 

 ing, "the Infinite," is ... ambiguous, 

 not merely as " the Supernatural " is am- 

 biguous, by reason of its involving a sepa- 

 rate and adventitious meaning besides the 

 meaning which is prominent and essential; 

 but it is ambiguous by reason of not nec- 

 essarily containing at all the one meaning 

 which is essential to religion. " The Infi- 

 nite " is a pure and bare abstraction, which 

 may or may not include the one only object 

 of religious consciousness and thought. An 

 Infinite Being, if that be the meaning of 

 "the Infinite," is, indeed, the highest and 

 most perfect object of religion. But an in- 

 finite space is no object of religious feeling. 

 An infinite number of material units is no 

 object of religious thought. Infinite time is 

 no object of religious thought. On the other 

 hand, infinite power not only may be, but 

 must be, an object of religious contempla- 

 tion in proportion as it is connected with 

 the idea of power in a living will. Infinite 

 goodness must be the object of religious 

 thought and emotion, because in its very 

 nature this conception involves that of a 

 personal being. But if all this is what is 

 intended by " the Infinite," then it would be 

 best to say so plainly. The only use of the 

 phrase, as the one selected to indicate the 

 object of religion, is that it may be under- 

 stood in a sense that is kept out" of sight. 

 ARGYLL Unity of Nature, ch. 11, p. 272. 

 (Burt.) 



1656. INFINITY OF SPACE, MAT- 

 TER, AND ENERGY Science Leads Out to 

 the Infinite. Infinity of space and of mat- 

 ter occupying space, of time and of the 

 processes with which time is occupied, and 

 infinity of energy as necessarily implied by 

 the infinities of matter and of the operations 

 affecting matter these infinities science 

 brings clearly before us. For science directs 

 our thoughts to the finites to which these 

 infinites correspond. It shows us that 

 there can be no conceivable limits to space 

 or time, and tho finiteness of matter or of 

 operation may be conceivable, there is mani- 

 fest incongruity in assuming an infinite dis- 

 proportion between unoccupied and occupied 

 space, or between void time and time occu- 

 pied with the occurrence of events of what 

 sort soever. So that the teachings of science 



bring us into the presence of the unques- 

 tionable infinities of time and of space, and 

 the presumable infinities of matter and of 

 operation hence, therefore, into the pres- 

 ence of infinity of energy. But science 

 teaches us nothing about these infinities, as 

 such. They remain none the less inconceiv- 

 able, however clearly we may be taught to 

 recognize their reality. PROCTOR Our Place 

 among Infinities, p. 1. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



1657. INFINITY REVEALED IN NA- 

 TURE The earnest and solemn thoughts 

 awakened by a communion with Nature 

 intuitively arise from a presentiment of the 

 order and harmony pervading the whole uni- 

 verse, and from the contrast we draw be- 

 tween the narrow limits of our own exist- 

 ence and the image of infinity revealed on 

 every side, whether we look upward to the 

 starry vault of heaven, scan the far-stretch- 

 ing plain before us, or seek to trace the dim 

 horizon across the vast expanse of ocean. 

 HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. i, int., p. 25. (H., 

 1897.) 



1658. INFINITY SUGGESTED BY 

 THE OCEAN However much this richness 



[of the ocean] in animated forms, and this 

 multitude of the most various and highly 

 developed microscopic organisms may agree- 

 ably excite the fancy, the imagination is 

 even more seriously, and, I might say, more 

 solemnly moved by the impression of bound- 

 lessness and immeasurability which are 

 presented to the mind by every sea-voyage. 

 All who possess an ordinary degree of men- 

 tal activity, and delight to create to them- 

 selves an inner world of thought, must be 

 penetrated with the sublime image of the 

 infinite when gazing around them on the 

 vast and boundless sea, when involuntarily 

 the glance is attracted to the distant hori- 

 zon, where air and water blend together, and 

 the stars continually rise and set before the 

 eyes of the mariner. This contemplation of 

 the eternal play of the elements is clouded, 

 like every human joy, by a touch of sadness 

 and of longing. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. i, 

 p. 310. (H., 1897.) 



1659. INFINITY, THE CONCEPTION 



OF A Necessity of Human Thought. " That 

 the finite cannot comprehend the infinite " 

 is a proposition constantly propounded as 

 an undoubted and all-comprehensive truth. 

 Such truth as does belong to it seems to 

 come from the domain of physics, in which 

 it represents the axiom that a part cannot 

 be equal to the whole. From this, in the 

 domain of mind, it comes to represent the 

 truth, equally undeniable, that we cannot 

 know all that infinity contains. But the 

 meaning into which it is liable to pass when 

 applied to mind is that man cannot con- 

 ceive infinity. And never was any proposi- 

 tion so commonly accepted which, in this 

 sense, is so absolutely devoid of all founda- 

 tion. Not only is infinity conceivable by us, 

 but it is inseparable from conceptions which 



