312 Researches in the Theory and Calculus of Operations. 



follows from reaction : an advancing wave returns upon 

 itself, resuscitates the central power, and minor internal 

 oscillations ensue, gradually subsiding into an orderly sys- 

 tem of wheels within wheels or orbs within orbs, to what 

 extent is left for observers to find ; but all must be periodi- 

 cal, because we cannot transcend the charmed circle mark- 

 ed out by destiny or escape from the cosmical enceinte, and 

 yet perpetual ever-renewing action must pursue its course 

 across the aeons. The suns of the universe are the central 

 nodes of spheriform waves, the shores or borders of which 

 are the limiting nodal surfaces. "Within each great system, 

 each planet, etc. is a nodal centre, and emanates its own 

 nodal surface, movable and shifting as its own position, but 

 all according to the balance of forces. Every thing is both 

 means and end (Kant). 



Now to make application to an example of a vital sphere : 

 the ventral seed of a plant springs up from the soil with 

 the opening season, puts forth its growing strength, reaches 

 its nodal boundary at the harvesting or fruiting time, and 

 then retires before the encroaching cold towards its paren- 

 tal home of earth, or else hybernates in its place, to repeat 

 the like round again and again with the periodical return 

 of congenial spring. 



But here the parallelism diverges, and opens into a wider 

 view. While the great cosmos looked to its Creator alone 

 for its origin, our little secondarily created cosmos (the 

 tree) strews the surrounding country with the germ-seeds 

 of many new worlds of its own kind; germ-seeds or fruits, 

 the economy of whose production forms still an arc in the 

 circle of periodicity. The mounting activity of the growing 

 plant for a time overpowers the influence of the diverging 

 forces ; but at length the latter acquire the mastery, and 

 buds are diverted from uprightness and developed branch- 

 wise. Reaching the nodal impassable boundary, the forces 

 of the terminal buds are ruled by the surrounding horizon- 



