is going off in friction, so that these bodies must gradually 
become cooler, and the earth become unfitted for the habita- 
tion of man. The heavenly bodies must in this way lose 
energy of rotation and revolution, the sun fade and die as a 
light-bearer, and the universe now visible be destroyed. This 
is the grandest instance of the actual limitation of the “ things 
which are seen/ 7 We are every moment in the presence of 
powers destined to bring to a perpetual end the form of all 
things. The actual has come out of the possible, and is re- 
turning again into the same. 
29. Assume that the retardation of the planetary motions 
will ultimately bring them all to a gaseous state, and that, in 
place of a solar system, there will only be a nebulous blot. 
Assume further, as expressed by Mr. Herbert Spencer, that 
then the increased molecular motion will effect other starry 
systems and lead to a re-transfer, and so to the beginning of 
another system, and so on ; yet the fact remains, that all this 
is effected by law; no portion of time exists, no atom of 
matter, which is not dominated by limits ; limits not inherent 
in matter or force, but imposed by government. 
30. Glancing at Geology we find that the limits disclosed 
by it are truly remarkable, considering that it is the science 
on which the opposite conclusion has been based. Not only 
are the component minerals limited by the rigid laws of 
crystallography, but the strata into which these are com- 
pounded are defined by characters universally prevalent, whilst 
the accompanying fauna and flora are limited by distinct 
beginnings and the occurrence of distinct species throughout. 
Every now and then the exact limits in particular instances, 
as well in stratigraphical as in mineralogical and biological 
aspects, are disputed and re-arranged ; but this only proves 
the existence and importance of the limits themselves. In 
Geology there is no 'running out into infinity, nor any ten- 
dency to boundlessness, either in its ancient or modern 
phenomena. 
II. Further Limits. 
31. Our power of observing nature is limited to the 
exercise of our senses, and these can of course only operate 
within the limits of time and space. We can conceive of an 
infinity of time and space, but wo cannot know it; we can, 
therefore, conceive of an indefinite extension of knowledge, 
but it must be under conditions wholly different from the 
present. 
32. Man’s power over nature is limited. Enormous as are 
the strides which he has made in this direction sinco the 
