__actualities of nature. We may well believe that this trae co 
4  &. B. Hunt on Physical and Metaphysical Infinity. 
which in their entirety wholly transcend our comprehension, — 
there is in each case a particular value which is apprehended 
with the maximum precision and facility by each individual 
mind. The natural unit of measure for each subject of measure 
is that particular value which is best appreciated by an average 
man. The same rule holds in the more transcendental subjects. 
of measurement. Thus a man of average intellectual power and 
capacity becomes a natural unit of mentality, and a man of aver- 
age morality becomes a unit of morality. If a particular moral — 
quality, as benevolence, for instance, be quantitatively consid- 
ered, we refer all to the man of average benevolence. When ~ 
we speak of Divine Benevolence as infinite, we mean that it is _ 
so exhaustless and all prevailing, that when we compare it with 
=e benevolence of an average man our limited human powers 
“utterly fail to take in its relative immensity. From these con- 
siderations we may conclude that whenever we predicate infinity 
of any particular existence, attribute or quality of the external 
world, man’s capacity to appreciate the various values of the 
subject matter considered, enters directly as the standard of com- 
arison. Thus to say that space is infinite is simply to say that 
the extreme exercise of human power to perceive space as an “l 
existence is transcended by the actuality of nature. If we speak 
of infinite time we but declare that the brief periods of duration — 
of which man in his earthly life is conscious are relatively s0 
small that we can by no means conceive the number expressing : 
the true ratio of man’s hour or lifetime to the infinite duration 
referred to. : 
Whatever physical infinity engages our consideration, an anal- 
oka 
ogous limitation of the special powers of the human organism 
is defined. We might almost say that for us, the grand sphere | 
of physical infinity is the circumscribing sphere drawn around | 
the aggregate perceptive faculties of man. It is not at all the 
absolute cosmos or circumscribing sphere which contains all the 
mic sphere in which all created existence is contained is itself an 
infinity as compared with that specifie infinity which is as it 
were the defining or tangent surface around the faculties of © 
r would be to them what the radius of the earth is 
as there may be intelligences to which the earth is but an ato 
f 
