186 REV, H. J. CLARKE-. 



ever enormous the product may be, is of necessity finite ; for 

 division and multiplication are arithmetical processes. But, if 

 this duration be added to Infinity, what do we get ? An 

 algebraical equation will give us oo + a = ao , — a mode of 

 expression which makes it evident at a glance that, relatively 

 to Infinity, a=0. We are compelled, therefore, to recognise 

 the existence of something whose age, if age it may be called, 

 is now precisely what it was millions of millions of years ago, 

 has never yet increased one moment, and never will increase, 

 but will swallow up, so to speak, ages of ages, and still have 

 undergone no change. Thus our intellect, though bound to 

 acknowledge the Eternal, cannot fulfil its obligation without 

 overstepping the limits of its time-conditioned experiences. 

 Again, as every measure which has relation to Space is 

 interminably divisible in thought, we can never arrive at a 

 metaphysically necessary conception of a material atom; and, 

 as the process of resolving the manifold in imagination fails 

 to yield at length a metaphysically determinate representation 

 of the absolutely simple, we must conclude that, in the way 

 of occupying space, the latter can have no existence. But 

 neither the Infinite on the one hand, nor the subject of con- 

 sciousness on the other, can be conceived as admitting 

 division or resolution into simpler forms of existence. Hence 

 it should be evident that we can have no true cognition of 

 either the one or the other, cannot intellectually represent to 

 ourselves the Author of our Being or take the first step 

 towards self-knowledge, without permitting our intellect a 

 freer exercise than is allowed by those space-conditioned 

 experiences which preclude a recognition of the actual 

 existence of monads. In the investigation of the Tran- 

 scendental we have to choose one or the other of two alter- 

 natives : in the attempt to characterise it we must avail 

 ourselves of concepts, which, being shaped and coloured 

 under the influence of a finite imagination, are, from the 

 standpoint of scientific thought, easily perceived to be 

 defective, — concepts which, it must be granted, suggest rather 

 than accurately describe, but which nevertheless may be 

 regarded as pointing to truth and reality ; or, in order 

 to prove that we are justified in declining the attempt, 

 we must introduce into our reasonings the notion of an 

 infinite number, and thus do violence to our under- 

 standing in the vain endeavour to unite contradictories in 

 one and the same concept. Is there room for doubt as to 

 the choice we ought to make ? I venture to think there is 

 not. I find that I cannot hesitate to accept the testimony 



