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SYDNEY T. KLEIN, F.L.S., F.R.A.S., ON 



of many of its propositions. You have succession. We are told that 

 an insect's wing beats 10,000 times a second, which means that you 

 have a first beat, a second beat, a third beat and so on, up to the 

 10,000 beats. What is that but succession 1 are we to suppose that 

 all those beats take place instantly at the same moment 1 If they 

 do not there is succession, and if succession there is Time, and if there 

 is Time the whole of the reasoning, on this basis, falls to the ground 

 completely. But I think the lecturer has also got into confusion 

 between our conception of things and the conceptions of the Divine 

 Being. I can easily understand, at least it is thinkable and 

 believable, of course, that to the infinite mind everything is present, 

 that there is nothing past and nothing future in the infinite thought. 

 All is present to Him which is not to my finite mind ; but I am not 

 God, and God is capable of creating a universe that is not Himself, 

 and in this universe He is capable of creating beings whose senses 

 do not deceive them. Bishop Butler says, " God did not give us 

 our senses to deceive us," and though I am not certain what light 

 or matter may be, there is something that occurs to me to give 

 me the idea of light as I look at a window. There is a horse 

 yonder, which was not there a little while ago, and I believe 

 there is something there, and that this is an objective universe, and 

 that there is something outside my own consciousness ; and therefore,, 

 whatever may be the fact concerning the mysteries of the divine 

 being, though He made me, not like Himself in every respect, or 

 equal to Himself, I have some notion that His works are objective 

 realities. 



I have thrown out these undigested thoughts to show that we 

 are on safe ground when we hold to our old belief that there is an 

 Infinite Being, that we are creatures surrounded by objective 

 realities, that the future is future and the past is past, that there is 

 something that corresponds with these expressions, something that 

 corresponds with the idea of past, present and future, and that 

 the common sense view of the world and realities is the true one. 



Mr. BosCAWEN. — I think the mere fact that we are finite creatures 

 impels us to know the Infinite. It is an ideal we cannot reach, but 

 to which we always look and like to look. It is an unknown 

 quantity. The mere word finite implies Infinite, something beyond 

 us, and whether we call it God, or whatever we call it, we must, 

 admit that there are things beyond us which we cannot realize. 



