711 AN APOLOGUE OF CORPOREAL AND COSMICAL INFINITY. 
?<<?, our space and time: worlds, which have lasted, perhaps, hut a day, and yet 
are hoary with age; while, at the opposite extreme, are other worlds, which 
have endured for countless ages, and yet are only in their earliest infancy,— 
have not yet brought forth their first ichthyosaurus. And sometimes I amuse 
myself by fancying that this lentil-seed of an universe in which we live, may 
some day be caught up and eaten by an urchin, or go into a mess of pottage 
for an inhabitant, of some terrific epi-cosmos, of which it forms only a smallest 
constituent fragment.” 
“ Your speculations about worlds within worlds,” I here remarked, “remind 
me of a painting I saw some time ago at the house of a gentleman upon whom 
I had occasion "to call. I was ushered into his library, where, between two 
book-cases, hung a painting, which immediately arrested my attention. It was 
the picture of an interior, on the back wall of which hung another picture 
(No. 2), which was also a picture of an interior, having on its back wall a 
picture (No. 3), which, again, depicted an interior, carrying a picture (No. 4) ; 
and so on, in perpetual regress, till the series of pictures within pictures stretched 
away, and vanished in the distance.” 
“I know to whom you refer,” said my friend, “and I have heard of that 
painting, which is a very good illustration of our subject, in the descending 
scale. But, to make it complete, a companion picture is required, which should 
exhibit a reversal of the process, by suggesting—if only it were possible to sug¬ 
gest_an ascending scale, in which each successive stage should comprehend 
the last, instead of, as in the case of our atomic series, being sub-included 
within it.” 
“I quite agree with you,” said I. 
“And now, do you not begin to perceive,” he continued, “ that we fall very 
short of the mark, when we speak of creation as being merely infinite? Already, 
we have two infinitudes; for wherever we make our stand-point,—whether 
upon the most enormous universe to which our imaginations can soar, there is 
still an infinity of ascending magnitudes above us or, whether upon the 
smallest atomic universe within universe, there is still an infinity of descent 
beneath us.” 
“ But these two Infinities,—the infinitude of magnitudes eternally ascending,— 
the infinitude of parvitudes eternally descending,—oppressive as they are to the 
weak understanding of finite man, embody only half the problem : for these are still 
only the infinitudes of space. There are two other infinitudes, which are even more 
crushing,—the infinitude of the Time that has been ,—the infinitude of the lime 
that shall be;— the eternity of the infinite restorations and destructions that 
have already^been accomplished,—the eternity of the infinite dissolutions and 
re-creations that have yet to be fulfilled. Millions of times has system after 
system dissolved in ruins,—millions of times has each ‘ heard and obeyed the 
mandate of resurrection.’ No sooner has the 4 hie jacet ’ of a defunct world 
been recorded, than its * resurgam ’ is already being written. In death, there 
is the germ of life; and in life, are already contained the seeds of dissolu¬ 
tion. An infinite Penelopean tissue,—by parts, eternally weaving; by parts, 
eternally being unwoven : Creation pulsating throughout its infinite regions in 
an eternal systole and diastole of life and death.” 
“ Will you be pleased to return to your subject,” I here interrupted, “ for we 
are fast approaching our destination.” 
“Oh! thou most matter-of-fact and sceptical of men,” he retorted, “I will 
very soon bring my lucubrations to an end.’ 
I hastened to assure him that I was far from wishing to abridge the con¬ 
versation, and that I was quite as much interested as ever, but that our time 
was getting short. 
“ I shall still have abundance of time,” he replied ; “ for I have nothing fur¬ 
ther to say, except to apply the ‘ finis ’ to the topic of Infinity.” 
