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Duke of Wellington was entreated to send borne a young 
officer, because bis intended wife must die if be was not 
brought to her. The great soldier most reluctantly declined, 
but kindly hinted that such illnesses did not generally prove 
fatal. There are fancied necessities in philosophy as well as 
in love. I think this absurd idea of the Infinite is one of 
them. May we not deny “ absolute ” infinity intelligently ? 
May we not imagine that beyond a certain range in the uni- 
verse there is nothing ? Can we not even think this ? I insist 
that I can. I can think of a perfect vacuum , and that is 
nothing. You say it is “ space ; ” but it is empty space, and 
that is nothing. It mav be truly said to be the possibility of 
being, but that is not being itself. Where nothing is, some- 
thing may be ; but the nothing is a perfectly good thought. I 
must believe that the thought of a perfect vacuum is as good 
as any other idea. As easily as I can think of a vacuum in a 
perfectly-exhausted receiver, I can think of a vacuum .beyond 
certain limits of the universe. A certain writer has said that it 
he were on the verge of supposed finite being he could thrust 
out his arm beyond, and so there must be something into which 
his arm could be thrust. We may improve on his illustration. 
If he stood on the edge of being, with only empty space be- 
yond, he might leap into it, and there would then be a live 
philosopher where there was nothing before ; but that would 
fail to prove the being of that nothing. I do uot for a moment 
deny the true Infinite, but I do deny that the Absolute Infinite 
is a necessary idea. It is perfectly easy to conceive of the absence 
of being from what is called a 'place. The conception is pei- 
fectly clear, and just as satisfactory as any true conception can 
possiblv be, so far as the constitution of my mind is concerned 
and it is not the conception of being, but the conception of 
the absence of being— that is , of nothing. It must ever be 
very unsafe to reason from our shifting capabilities ol con- 
ception. These are one thing to-day and another thing 
to-morrow. , , . . „ ^ ,■> „ 
We mia*ht make similar remarks on what is called the 
Ab solute. & That is properly the complete or perfect, knowing no 
defect or flaw. This perfection considered in itself is nothing. 
The word can only truthfully represent the mode of being m 
some object, and it must refer to certain properties of that 
object. For example, there is One absolutely good— that is, 
e*ood without any mixture of badness. He is absolutely wise— 
that is, wise without any mixture of folly. And so on of every 
quality that goes to make up a perfect Being. If you speak ol 
such an absolute as has no necessary relations, meaning such 
an absoluteness as must consist in literally every quality, good, 
