278 Thoughts on our Conceptions [April* 
It is for precisely the same reason that we cannot foretell 
the future destiny of every person in the world. But to a 
mind possessing all knowledge, and of infinite power, the 
one problem would evidently be as simple as the other. 
Not only are we unable to predict for an infinite future, 
on account of the summing up of disturbances which can- 
not be detected in a short time, with our means of investi- 
gation, but, as before suggested, events wholly unexpected 
to our partially instructed minds — apparent breaches of 
continuity-are liable to happen at any time. 
“ A great explosion on the sun may scorch us into cinders 
in a second. The earth may be dashed to pieces and dissi- 
pated into gas, by collision with some immense meteorite. 
We may become involved in a nebulous atmosphere of 
combustible gas, which would ignite a moment later ; in 
faCt, as was so eloquently pointed out by Mr. Babbage, 
there is no catastrophe too great or too sudden to be con- 
sistent with the reign of law and the continuity of aCtion.” 
In the discussion of physical phenomena we always 
ignore the greater part of the discussion, by neglecting 
those elements which are, or are supposed to be, unim- 
portant. In so simple an operation as the weighing of a 
quantity of matter on a steelyard, we can discuss only the 
merest elements of the case. The student of physics would 
tell you that the weights are inversely as the lever arms, but 
this is far from being the whole story. During the weighing, 
certain parts of the steel bar are heated ; other parts are 
cooled ; still other parts retain their temperature un- 
changed ; electrical currents are set up within its mass ; its 
magnetism is changed ; its torsion and elasticity become 
different : in faCt, to discuss all the changes occurring within 
the bar during so simple an operation would infinitely 
transcend the power of the most gifted men. 
If we could discuss completely the laws which govern 
phenomena we should find them represented, in many cases, 
not by the comparatively simple formulae which have been 
found sufficient for practical purposes, but by infinite series, 
the first terms only of which our mathematicians have been 
able to deduce, and our physicists to experimentally deteCt. 
In the study of Physics our most certain experimental 
results force us to ideas equally beyond our power of real- 
isation. It is shown, beyond question, that light moves 
over a distance of about seven times the circumference of 
our earth in a single second. We must look for something 
marvellous in any theory which can account for so marvel- 
lous a faCt. According to Newton’s theory, we should have 
