454 MODERN SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION : 
heavens of a clear evening, we recognize the fact that we 
staid as it were on a point in space, where our field of 
vision is limitless; the heavenly bodies stretching away 
into the realms of obscurity, and becoming invisible only 
through the imperfection of our orgaus of vision. Bring- 
ing to our aid the most powerful telescopes, we are appa- 
rently as far as ever from reaching the limits of the 
universe; and when we endeavor to conceive of such a 
limit, the reasoning faculty finds itself incapable of grasp- 
ing either of the two alternatives offered to it, one or the 
other of which must be true. The universe must be 
either limited or limitless. But no man can conceive of 
a universe without a limit; and if it be regarded as ter- 
minated by definite boundaries, the imagination strives in 
vain to fill the void which reaches beyond. In fact we 
stand here face to face with infinity, and recognize the, 
fact that the infinite exists without the power to compre- 
hend it. 
The same is true of time. We cannot conceive of its 
beginning or its end. All things which come within the 
scope of our senses are limited in duration and circum- 
scribed in space, and though we prate flippantly of the 
infinite, the pretence that we can grasp it is simply idle 
Ik. 
Conducted on such a plan, it was inevitable that scien- 
tific investigations should be narrow and materialistic in 
their ieintioncy, No matter how strong the pitar in 
favor of the truth of a certàin proposition, —though the 
whole fabrie of society were based upon its acceptance, 
and it formed the foundation of civil and moral laws, €00- 
trolling the actions of the philosopher himself, —if not 
| on consistent with nature’s physical and material laws 
it must be rejected as unworthy to enter into the cor- 
