XUII.] CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES. 215 



changes are seen in the facts of meteorology and geology, 

 are iusignificaut in mass when compared with the vast, 

 inert, unchanging central masses of the planets. And the 

 planets and suns are but insignificant in magnitude when Matter is 

 compared with the vacant celestial spaces around. AU ^'^^^^ "? 



^ '^ proportion 



these are cases of the general law, that the simplest pro- to space, 

 perties and laws are in force over the widest spaces, and 

 on the largest scale. The properties of space are simpler The widest 

 than those of matter : the dynamical properties of matter, ^^^^ ^^^ 

 which alone act in causing the celestial motions, are simplest, 

 simpler than its thermal, electric, magnetic, and chemical 

 properties ; and these, again, are simpler than the charac- 

 teristic properties of living beings. 



The same relation of laws to each other holds good in and act 

 time as in space. The simplest laws are the most uniform *|jg°''^^'' 

 and the most general in their action, not only in space but longest 

 also in time. The only truths,. in any science, which we ™^' 

 are safe in pronouncing to be absolutely unchangeable by The only 

 any agency whatever, are the simplest and most funda- ^j^gUg"!-^ 

 mental of all truths, namely, those of logic. It is not able truths 

 possible even to Omnipotence to make a contradiction of^iog^^'' 

 true. The properties of space and time, on the contrary, 

 may be capable of change by the Divine will ; — I do not 

 assert that they are so ; I only say we cannot assert 

 that they are not ; — and if it is so, of course the laws of 

 mathematics may be changed with them.^ Space and 



1 I do not mean that it is within the power of Omnipotence to make a 

 mathematical absurdity true ; for this would be to make a contradiction 

 true. Omnipotence could not make two right lines enclose an area : that 

 is to say, could not make two right lines as we understand right lines, 

 enclose an area as we understand an area ; for this would be to make 

 either a right line or an area, or both, be what they are, and yet different : 

 which would be a contradiction. But it is to me credible that Omnipo- 

 tence might, without any contradiction being involved, have made the 

 properties of space and time different from what they are. And I see no 

 absurdity in thinking that the number of dimensions in space may be not 

 three, but infinite : only that the universe to which we belong is cajiable 

 of motion in but three of the dimensions ; so that we have experience of 

 but three, and cannot form a conception of any more. See the chapter on 

 Perception (Chap. XXXVI.). 



