AN APOLOGUE OF CORPOREAL AND COSMICAL INFINITY. 713 
all creation, as far as the utmost stretch of astronomical imagination has been 
able to realize it ? this infinite universe of ours being, in comparison with a 
possible infinite universe, less than that one lentil-shaped granule which we ob¬ 
served in our stone, compared with the entire congeries of granules. Do you 
follow me ?” he inquired. 
“ Pray proceed,” said I; “ for though I do not yet quite see your aim, what 
you say is sufficiently intelligible.” 
u Now, admitting,” he went on, u that these terrestrial atoms may be worlds, 
among which may be some whose inhabitants geologize and pharmacize, take 
walks on well-made roads, pick up and sermonize on stones, w hy may not each 
wayside stone, every individual substance, in any or all of them be, again, 
other universes, embracing other worlds, where there are still other wayside 
stones, which, again, are universes ; each one of these worlds,—systems,—uni¬ 
verses,—being constituted and built up of interior atomic universes,—systems,— 
worlds,—and so on to infinity ?” 
“ You quite take away my breath,” I cried out, “ with these intricate worlds 
within worlds, this life below life and within life. But do you mean me to 
regard all these supposititious worlds as finished and habitable ?” 
u By no means,” he replied ; “ I would have you regard them as existiug in 
every conceivable stage, from mere nebulous matter to the most highly finished 
v'orld, whose inhabitants have arrived at a state of such perfect hygiene that 
pharmacy is no longer needed.” 
“And may I ask,” I persisted, “wliat bearing the chemical and physical 
changes that are perpetually going on would have upon your—I cannot call it 
cosmo-gouy, let me say—atomo-gony ?” 
“ There is no reason,” he returned, “ why we should suppose that the resolu¬ 
tion and re-composition of universes, or of portions of universes, is either less 
or more important before Infinity than, to us, is a mere chemical decomposi¬ 
tion. Let us, therefore, suppose such a decomposition to be proceeding. The 
disruption and re-arrangement of molecules may then be equivalent to the de¬ 
struction and re-creation of a world; if the decomposition be by solution,—then 
to a destruction by water; if by heat,—then to a destruction by fire.” 
“ Will you return now to the point where I interrupted you,” I suggested ; 
“ to the picture you were drawing of worlds within worlds p” 
“ Well, then,” he continued, “ let us now reverse that picture, and let me 
ask you if there is any inherent impossibility that this, which we call our uni¬ 
verse, including countless systems, separated by distances that, to us, appear 
immeasurable,—united by times that, to us, are incomprehensible,—should be 
nothiug more than the molecules and atoms in a wayside stone, or, suppose, in 
a lentil-seed, upon the Tellus of some enormous system of an enormous universe, 
contrasted with which our universe is smaller than a grain of sand compared 
with the sun ? And why, again, may not this enormous universe itself be 
merely a pebble upon the Earth—of a system—of a universe, still more enor¬ 
mously Titanic; and so on, ad infinitum? worlds piled upon worlds,—system 
upon system,—universe upon universe,—dilating to infinity.” 
“Certainly there seems no reason,” I gasped, “why ail these things may 
not be possible to omnipotence ; but it is surprising to me where you can pick 
up such strange ideas.” 
“ When walking by myself in a thoughtful mood,” he returned, “ I can never 
refrain from ruminating over the infinite possibilities that surround us on every' 
side; that every stone, each pebble in the road, every clod of earth in the 
fields, may be a several and complete universe; its stellar systems comprising 
atomic suns innumerable,—waited upon by satellites past counting,—peopled 
with sentient beings, to whom one of our days is a millennium of ages, our year 
an eternity; yet to whom their space appears as large, and time as long, as, to 
YOL. X 3 A 
