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diff --git a/32037.txt b/32037.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a05ab1d --- /dev/null +++ b/32037.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5200 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Eureka:, by Edgar A. Poe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Eureka: + A Prose Poem + +Author: Edgar A. Poe + +Release Date: April 18, 2010 [EBook #32037] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EUREKA: *** + + + + +Produced by Meredith Bach, Irma Spehar and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + EUREKA: + A PROSE POEM. + + BY + + EDGAR A. POE. + + NEW-YORK: + GEO. P. PUTNAM, + OF LATE FIRM OF "WILEY & PUTNAM," + 155 BROADWAY. + + MDCCCXLVIII. + + + ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, + BY EDGAR A. POE, + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the + Southern District of New-York. + + LEAVITT, TROW & CO Prs., + 33 Ann-street. + + + WITH VERY PROFOUND RESPECT, + This Work is Dedicated + TO + ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +To the few who love me and whom I love--to those who feel rather than to +those who think--to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in +the only realities--I offer this Book of Truths, not in its character of +Truth-Teller, but for the Beauty that abounds in its Truth; constituting +it true. To these I present the composition as an Art-Product alone:--let +us say as a Romance; or, if I be not urging too lofty a claim, as a +Poem. + +_What I here propound is true_:--therefore it cannot die:--or if by any +means it be now trodden down so that it die, it will "rise again to the +Life Everlasting." + +Nevertheless it is as a Poem only that I wish this work to be judged +after I am dead. + +E. A. P. + + + + +EUREKA: + +AN ESSAY ON THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE. + + +It is with humility really unassumed--it is with a sentiment even of +awe--that I pen the opening sentence of this work: for of all conceivable +subjects I approach the reader with the most solemn--the most +comprehensive--the most difficult--the most august. + +What terms shall I find sufficiently simple in their +sublimity--sufficiently sublime in their simplicity--for the mere +enunciation of my theme? + +I design to speak of the _Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical--of the +Material and Spiritual Universe:--of its Essence, its Origin, its +Creation, its Present Condition and its Destiny_. I shall be so rash, +moreover, as to challenge the conclusions, and thus, in effect, to +question the sagacity, of many of the greatest and most justly +reverenced of men. + +In the beginning, let me as distinctly as possible announce--not the +theorem which I hope to demonstrate--for, whatever the mathematicians may +assert, there is, in this world at least, _no such thing_ as +demonstration--but the ruling idea which, throughout this volume, I shall +be continually endeavoring to suggest. + +My general proposition, then, is this:--_In the Original Unity of the +First Thing lies the Secondary Cause of All Things, with the Germ of +their Inevitable Annihilation_. + +In illustration of this idea, I propose to take such a survey of the +Universe that the mind may be able really to receive and to perceive an +individual impression. + +He who from the top of AEtna casts his eyes leisurely around, is affected +chiefly by the _extent_ and _diversity_ of the scene. Only by a rapid +whirling on his heel could he hope to comprehend the panorama in the +sublimity of its _oneness_. But as, on the summit of AEtna, _no_ man has +thought of whirling on his heel, so no man has ever taken into his brain +the full uniqueness of the prospect; and so, again, whatever +considerations lie involved in this uniqueness, have as yet no practical +existence for mankind. + +I do not know a treatise in which a survey of the _Universe_--using the +word in its most comprehensive and only legitimate acceptation--is taken +at all:--and it may be as well here to mention that by the term +"Universe," wherever employed without qualification in this essay, I +mean to designate _the utmost conceivable expanse of space, with all +things, spiritual and material, that can be imagined to exist within the +compass of that expanse_. In speaking of what is ordinarily implied by +the expression, "Universe," I shall take a phrase of limitation--"the +Universe of stars." Why this distinction is considered necessary, will +be seen in the sequel. + +But even of treatises on the really limited, although always assumed as +the _un_limited, Universe of _stars_, I know none in which a survey, +even of this limited Universe, is so taken as to warrant deductions from +its _individuality_. The nearest approach to such a work is made in the +"Cosmos" of Alexander Von Humboldt. He presents the subject, however, +_not_ in its individuality but in its generality. His theme, in its last +result, is the law of _each_ portion of the merely physical Universe, as +this law is related to the laws of _every other_ portion of this merely +physical Universe. His design is simply synoeretical. In a word, he +discusses the universality of material relation, and discloses to the +eye of Philosophy whatever inferences have hitherto lain hidden _behind_ +this universality. But however admirable be the succinctness with which +he has treated each particular point of his topic, the mere multiplicity +of these points occasions, necessarily, an amount of detail, and thus an +involution of idea, which precludes all _individuality_ of impression. + +It seems to me that, in aiming at this latter effect, and, through it, +at the consequences--the conclusions--the suggestions--the +speculations--or, if nothing better offer itself the mere guesses which +may result from it--we require something like a mental gyration on the +heel. We need so rapid a revolution of all things about the central +point of sight that, while the minutiae vanish altogether, even the more +conspicuous objects become blended into one. Among the vanishing +minutiae, in a survey of this kind, would be all exclusively terrestrial +matters. The Earth would be considered in its planetary relations alone. +A man, in this view, becomes mankind; mankind a member of the cosmical +family of Intelligences. + +And now, before proceeding to our subject proper, let me beg the +reader's attention to an extract or two from a somewhat remarkable +letter, which appears to have been found corked in a bottle and floating +on the _Mare Tenebrarum_--an ocean well described by the Nubian +geographer, Ptolemy Hephestion, but little frequented in modern days +unless by the Transcendentalists and some other divers for crotchets. +The date of this letter, I confess, surprises me even more particularly +than its contents; for it seems to have been written in the year _two_ +thousand eight hundred and forty-eight. As for the passages I am about +to transcribe, they, I fancy, will speak for themselves. + +"Do you know, my dear friend," says the writer, addressing, no doubt, a +contemporary--"Do you know that it is scarcely more than eight or nine +hundred years ago since the metaphysicians first consented to relieve +the people of the singular fancy that there exist _but two practicable +roads to Truth_? Believe it if you can! It appears, however, that long, +long ago, in the night of Time, there lived a Turkish philosopher called +Aries and surnamed Tottle." [Here, possibly, the letter-writer means +Aristotle; the best names are wretchedly corrupted in two or three +thousand years.] "The fame of this great man depended mainly upon his +demonstration that sneezing is a natural provision, by means of which +over-profound thinkers are enabled to expel superfluous ideas through +the nose; but he obtained a scarcely less valuable celebrity as the +founder, or at all events as the principal propagator, of what was +termed the _de_ductive or _a priori_ philosophy. He started with what he +maintained to be axioms, or self-evident truths:--and the now well +understood fact that _no_ truths are _self_-evident, really does not +make in the slightest degree against his speculations:--it was sufficient +for his purpose that the truths in question were evident at all. From +axioms he proceeded, logically, to results. His most illustrious +disciples were one Tuclid, a geometrician," [meaning Euclid] "and one +Kant, a Dutchman, the originator of that species of Transcendentalism +which, with the change merely of a C for a K, now bears his peculiar +name. + +"Well, Aries Tottle flourished supreme, until the advent of one Hog, +surnamed 'the Ettrick shepherd,' who preached an entirely different +system, which he called the _a posteriori_ or _in_ductive. His plan +referred altogether to sensation. He proceeded by observing, analyzing, +and classifying facts--_instantiae Naturae_, as they were somewhat +affectedly called--and arranging them into general laws. In a word, while +the mode of Aries rested on _noumena_, that of Hog depended on +_phenomena_; and so great was the admiration excited by this latter +system that, at its first introduction, Aries fell into general +disrepute. Finally, however, he recovered ground, and was permitted to +divide the empire of Philosophy with his more modern rival:--the savans +contenting themselves with proscribing all _other_ competitors, past, +present, and to come; putting an end to all controversy on the topic by +the promulgation of a Median law, to the effect that the Aristotelian +and Baconian roads are, and of right ought to be, the solo possible +avenues to knowledge:--'Baconian,' you must know, my dear friend," adds +the letter-writer at this point, "was an adjective invented as +equivalent to Hog-ian, and at the same time more dignified and +euphonious. + +"Now I do assure you most positively"--proceeds the epistle--"that I +represent these matters fairly; and you can easily understand how +restrictions so absurd on their very face must have operated, in those +days, to retard the progress of true Science, which makes its most +important advances--as all History will show--by seemingly intuitive +_leaps_. These ancient ideas confined investigation to crawling; and I +need not suggest to you that crawling, among varieties of locomotion, is +a very capital thing of its kind;--but because the tortoise is sure of +foot, for this reason must we clip the wings of the eagles? For many +centuries, so great was the infatuation, about Hog especially, that a +virtual stop was put to all thinking, properly so called. No man dared +utter a truth for which he felt himself indebted to his soul alone. It +mattered not whether the truth was even demonstrably such; for the +dogmatizing philosophers of that epoch regarded only _the road_ by which +it professed to have been attained. The end, with them, was a point of +no moment, whatever:--'the means!' they vociferated--'let us look at the +means!'--and if, on scrutiny of the means, it was found to come neither +under the category Hog, nor under the category Aries (which means ram), +why then the savans went no farther, but, calling the thinker a fool +and branding him a 'theorist,' would never, thenceforward, have any +thing to do either with _him_ or with his truths. + +"Now, my dear friend," continues the letter-writer, "it cannot be +maintained that by the crawling system, exclusively adopted, men would +arrive at the maximum amount of truth, even in any long series of ages; +for the repression of imagination was an evil not to be counterbalanced +even by _absolute_ certainty in the snail processes. But their certainty +was very far from absolute. The error of our progenitors was quite +analogous with that of the wiseacre who fancies he must necessarily see +an object the more distinctly, the more closely he holds it to his eyes. +They blinded themselves, too, with the impalpable, titillating Scotch +snuff of _detail_; and thus the boasted facts of the Hog-ites were by no +means always facts--a point of little importance but for the assumption +that they always _were_. The vital taint, however, in Baconianism--its +most lamentable fount of error--lay in its tendency to throw power and +consideration into the hands of merely perceptive men--of those +inter-Tritonic minnows, the microscopical savans--the diggers and pedlers +of minute _facts_, for the most part in physical science--facts all of +which they retailed at the same price upon the highway; their value +depending, it was supposed, simply upon the _fact of their fact_, +without reference to their applicability or inapplicability in the +development of those ultimate and only legitimate facts, called Law. + +"Than the persons"--the letter goes on to say--"Than the persons thus +suddenly elevated by the Hog-ian philosophy into a station for which +they were unfitted--thus transferred from the sculleries into the parlors +of Science--from its pantries into its pulpits--than these individuals a +more intolerant--a more intolerable set of bigots and tyrants never +existed on the face of the earth. Their creed, their text and their +sermon were, alike, the one word '_fact_'--but, for the most part, even +of this one word, they knew not even the meaning. On those who ventured +to _disturb_ their facts with the view of putting them in order and to +use, the disciples of Hog had no mercy whatever. All attempts at +generalization were met at once by the words 'theoretical,' 'theory,' +'theorist'--all _thought_, to be brief, was very properly resented as a +personal affront to themselves. Cultivating the natural sciences to the +exclusion of Metaphysics, the Mathematics, and Logic, many of these +Bacon-engendered philosophers--one-idead, one-sided and lame of a +leg--were more wretchedly helpless--more miserably ignorant, in view of +all the comprehensible objects of knowledge, than the veriest unlettered +hind who proves that he knows something at least, in admitting that he +knows absolutely nothing. + +"Nor had our forefathers any better right to talk about _certainty_, +when pursuing, in blind confidence, the _a priori_ path of axioms, or of +the Ram. At innumerable points this path was scarcely as straight as a +ram's-horn. The simple truth is, that the Aristotelians erected their +castles upon a basis far less reliable than air; _for no such things as +axioms ever existed or can possibly exist at all_. This they must have +been very blind, indeed, not to see, or at least to suspect; for, even +in their own day, many of their long-admitted 'axioms' had been +abandoned:--'_ex nihilo nihil fit_,' for example, and a 'thing cannot act +where it is not,' and 'there cannot be antipodes,' and 'darkness cannot +proceed from light.' These and numerous similar propositions formerly +accepted, without hesitation, as axioms, or undeniable truths, were, +even at the period of which I speak, seen to be altogether +untenable:--how absurd in these people, then, to persist in relying upon +a basis, as immutable, whose mutability had become so repeatedly +manifest! + +"But, even through evidence afforded by themselves against themselves, +it is easy to convict these _a priori_ reasoners of the grossest +unreason--it is easy to show the futility--the impalpability of their +axioms in general. I have now lying before me"--it will be observed that +we still proceed with the letter--"I have now lying before me a book +printed about a thousand years ago. Pundit assures me that it is +decidedly the cleverest ancient work on its topic, which is 'Logic.' The +author, who was much esteemed in his day, was one Miller, or Mill; and +we find it recorded of him, as a point of some importance, that he rode +a mill-horse whom he called Jeremy Bentham:--but let us glance at the +volume itself! + +"Ah!--'Ability or inability to conceive,' says Mr. Mill very properly, +'is _in no case_ to be received as a criterion of axiomatic truth.' Now, +that this is a palpable truism no one in his senses will deny. _Not_ to +admit the proposition, is to insinuate a charge of variability in Truth +itself, whose very title is a synonym of the Steadfast. If ability to +conceive be taken as a criterion of Truth, then a truth to _David_ Hume +would very seldom be a truth to _Joe_; and ninety-nine hundredths of +what is undeniable in Heaven would be demonstrable falsity upon Earth. +The proposition of Mr. Mill, then, is sustained. I will not grant it to +be an _axiom_; and this merely because I am showing that _no_ axioms +exist; but, with a distinction which could not have been cavilled at +even by Mr. Mill himself, I am ready to grant that, _if_ an axiom _there +be_, then the proposition of which we speak has the fullest right to be +considered an axiom--that no _more_ absolute axiom _is_--and, +consequently, that any subsequent proposition which shall conflict with +this one primarily advanced, must be either a falsity in itself--that is +to say no axiom--or, if admitted axiomatic, must at once neutralize both +itself and its predecessor. + +"And now, by the logic of their own propounder, let us proceed to test +any one of the axioms propounded. Let us give Mr. Mill the fairest of +play. We will bring the point to no ordinary issue. We will select for +investigation no common-place axiom--no axiom of what, not the less +preposterously because only impliedly, he terms his secondary class--as +if a positive truth by definition could be either more or less +positively a truth:--we will select, I say, no axiom of an +unquestionability so questionable as is to be found in Euclid. We will +not talk, for example, about such propositions as that two straight +lines cannot enclose a space, or that the whole is greater than any one +of its parts. We will afford the logician _every_ advantage. We will +come at once to a proposition which he regards as the acme of the +unquestionable--as the quintessence of axiomatic undeniability. Here it +is:--'Contradictions cannot _both_ be true--that is, cannot coeexist in +nature.' Here Mr. Mill means, for instance,--and I give the most forcible +instance conceivable--that a tree must be either a tree or _not_ a +tree--that it cannot be at the same time a tree _and_ not a tree:--all +which is quite reasonable of itself and will answer remarkably well as +an axiom, until we bring it into collation with an axiom insisted upon a +few pages before--in other words--words which I have previously +employed--until we test it by the logic of its own propounder. 'A tree,' +Mr. Mill asserts, 'must be either a tree or _not_ a tree.' Very +well:--and now let me ask him, _why_. To this little query there is but +one response:--I defy any man living to invent a second. The sole answer +is this:--'Because we find it _impossible to conceive_ that a tree can be +any thing else than a tree or not a tree.' This, I repeat, is Mr. Mill's +sole answer:--he will not _pretend_ to suggest another:--and yet, by his +own showing, his answer is clearly no answer at all; for has he not +already required us to admit, _as an axiom_, that ability or inability +to conceive is _in no case_ to be taken as a criterion of axiomatic +truth? Thus all--absolutely _all_ his argumentation is at sea without a +rudder. Let it not be urged that an exception from the general rule is +to be made, in cases where the 'impossibility to conceive' is so +peculiarly great as when we are called upon to conceive a tree _both_ a +tree and _not_ a tree. Let no attempt, I say, be made at urging this +sotticism; for, in the first place, there are no _degrees_ of +'impossibility,' and thus no one impossible conception can be _more_ +peculiarly impossible than another impossible conception:--in the second +place, Mr. Mill himself, no doubt after thorough deliberation, has most +distinctly, and most rationally, excluded all opportunity for exception, +by the emphasis of his proposition, that, _in no case_, is ability or +inability to conceive, to be taken as a criterion of axiomatic +truth:--in the third place, even were exceptions admissible at all, it +remains to be shown how any exception is admissible _here_. That a tree +can be both a tree and not a tree, is an idea which the angels, or the +devils, _may_ entertain, and which no doubt many an earthly Bedlamite, +or Transcendentalist, _does_. + +"Now I do not quarrel with these ancients," continues the letter-writer, +"_so much_ on account of the transparent frivolity of their logic--which, +to be plain, was baseless, worthless and fantastic altogether--as on +account of their pompous and infatuate proscription of all _other_ roads +to Truth than the two narrow and crooked paths--the one of creeping and +the other of crawling--to which, in their ignorant perversity, they have +dared to confine the Soul--the Soul which loves nothing so well as to +soar in those regions of illimitable intuition which are utterly +incognizant of '_path_.' + +"By the bye, my dear friend, is it not an evidence of the mental slavery +entailed upon those bigoted people by their Hogs and Rams, that in spite +of the eternal prating of their savans about _roads_ to Truth, none of +them fell, even by accident, into what we now so distinctly perceive to +be the broadest, the straightest and most available of all mere +roads--the great thoroughfare--the majestic highway of the _Consistent_? +Is it not wonderful that they should have failed to deduce from the +works of God the vitally momentous consideration that _a perfect +consistency can be nothing but an absolute truth_? How plain--how rapid +our progress since the late announcement of this proposition! By its +means, investigation has been taken out of the hands of the ground-moles, +and given as a duty, rather than as a task, to the true--to the _only_ true +thinkers--to the generally-educated men of ardent imagination. These +latter--our Keplers--our Laplaces--'speculate'--'theorize'--these are the +terms--can you not fancy the shout of scorn with which they would be +received by our progenitors, were it possible for them to be looking over +my shoulders as I write? The Keplers, I repeat, speculate--theorize--and +their theories are merely corrected--reduced--sifted--cleared, little by +little, of their chaff of inconsistency--until at length there stands +apparent an unencumbered _Consistency_--a consistency which the most +stolid admit--because it _is_ a consistency--to be an absolute and an +unquestionable _Truth_. + +"I have often thought, my friend, that it must have puzzled these +dogmaticians of a thousand years ago, to determine, even, by which of +their two boasted roads it is that the cryptographist attains the +solution of the more complicate cyphers--or by which of them Champollion +guided mankind to those important and innumerable truths which, for so +many centuries, have lain entombed amid the phonetical hieroglyphics of +Egypt. In especial, would it not have given these bigots some trouble to +determine by which of their two roads was reached the most momentous and +sublime of _all_ their truths--the truth--the fact of _gravitation_? +Newton deduced it from the laws of Kepler. Kepler admitted that these +laws he _guessed_--these laws whose investigation disclosed to the +greatest of British astronomers that principle, the basis of all +(existing) physical principle, in going behind which we enter at once +the nebulous kingdom of Metaphysics. Yes!--these vital laws Kepler +_guessed_--that is to say, he _imagined_ them. Had he been asked to point +out either the _de_ductive or _in_ductive route by which he attained +them, his reply might have been--'I know nothing about _routes_--but I +_do_ know the machinery of the Universe. Here it is. I grasped it with +_my soul_--I reached it through mere dint of _intuition_.' Alas, poor +ignorant old man! Could not any metaphysician have told him that what he +called 'intuition' was but the conviction resulting from _de_ductions or +_in_ductions of which the processes were so shadowy as to have escaped +his consciousness, eluded his reason, or bidden defiance to his capacity +of expression? How great a pity it is that some 'moral philosopher' had +not enlightened him about all this! How it would have comforted him on +his death-bed to know that, instead of having gone intuitively and thus +unbecomingly, he had, in fact, proceeded decorously and +legitimately--that is to say Hog-ishly, or at least Ram-ishly--into the +vast halls where lay gleaming, untended, and hitherto untouched by +mortal hand--unseen by mortal eye--the imperishable and priceless secrets +of the Universe! + +"Yes, Kepler was essentially a _theorist_; but this title, _now_ of so +much sanctity, was, in those ancient days, a designation of supreme +contempt. It is only _now_ that men begin to appreciate that divine old +man--to sympathize with the prophetical and poetical rhapsody of his +ever-memorable words. For _my_ part," continues the unknown +correspondent, "I glow with a sacred fire when I even think of them, and +feel that I shall never grow weary of their repetition:--in concluding +this letter, let me have the real pleasure of transcribing them once +again:--'_I care not whether my work be read now or by posterity. I can +afford to wait a century for readers when God himself has waited six +thousand years for an observer. I triumph. I have stolen the golden +secret of the Egyptians. I will indulge my sacred fury._'" + +Here end my quotations from this very unaccountable and, perhaps, +somewhat impertinent epistle; and perhaps it would be folly to comment, +in any respect, upon the chimerical, not to say revolutionary, fancies +of the writer--whoever he is--fancies so radically at war with the +well-considered and well-settled opinions of this age. Let us proceed, +then, to our legitimate thesis, _The Universe_. + +This thesis admits a choice between two modes of discussion:--We may +_as_cend or _de_scend. Beginning at our own point of view--at the Earth +on which we stand--we may pass to the other planets of our system--thence +to the Sun--thence to our system considered collectively--and thence, +through other systems, indefinitely outwards; or, commencing on high at +some point as definite as we can make it or conceive it, we may come +down to the habitation of Man. Usually--that is to say, in ordinary +essays on Astronomy--the first of these two modes is, with certain +reservation, adopted:--this for the obvious reason that astronomical +_facts_, merely, and principles, being the object, that object is best +fulfilled in stepping from the known because proximate, gradually onward +to the point where all certitude becomes lost in the remote. For my +present purpose, however,--that of enabling the mind to take in, as if +from afar and at one glance, a distinct conception of the _individual_ +Universe--it is clear that a descent to small from great--to the outskirts +from the centre (if we could establish a centre)--to the end from the +beginning (if we could fancy a beginning) would be the preferable +course, but for the difficulty, if not impossibility, of presenting, in +this course, to the unastronomical, a picture at all comprehensible in +regard to such considerations as are involved in _quantity_--that is to +say, in number, magnitude and distance. + +Now, distinctness--intelligibility, at all points, is a primary feature +in my general design. On important topics it is better to be a good deal +prolix than even a very little obscure. But abstruseness is a quality +appertaining to no subject _per se_. All are alike, in facility of +comprehension, to him who approaches them by properly graduated steps. +It is merely because a stepping-stone, here and there, is heedlessly +left unsupplied in our road to the Differential Calculus, that this +latter is not altogether as simple a thing as a sonnet by Mr. Solomon +Seesaw. + +By way of admitting, then, no _chance_ for misapprehension, I think it +advisable to proceed as if even the more obvious facts of Astronomy were +unknown to the reader. In combining the two modes of discussion to which +I have referred, I propose to avail myself of the advantages peculiar to +each--and very especially of the _iteration in detail_ which will be +unavoidable as a consequence of the plan. Commencing with a descent, I +shall reserve for the return upwards those indispensable considerations +of _quantity_ to which allusion has already been made. + +Let us begin, then, at once, with that merest of words, "Infinity." +This, like "God," "spirit," and some other expressions of which the +equivalents exist in all languages, is by no means the expression of an +idea--but of an effort at one. It stands for the possible attempt at an +impossible conception. Man needed a term by which to point out the +_direction_ of this effort--the cloud behind which lay, forever +invisible, the _object_ of this attempt. A word, in fine, was demanded, +by means of which one human being might put himself in relation at once +with another human being and with a certain _tendency_ of the human +intellect. Out of this demand arose the word, "Infinity;" which is thus +the representative but of the _thought of a thought_. + +As regards _that_ infinity now considered--the infinity of space--we often +hear it said that "its idea is admitted by the mind--is acquiesced in--is +entertained--on account of the greater difficulty which attends the +conception of a limit." But this is merely one of those _phrases_ by +which even profound thinkers, time out of mind, have occasionally taken +pleasure in deceiving _themselves_. The quibble lies concealed in the +word "difficulty." "The mind," we are told, "entertains the idea of +_limitless_, through the greater _difficulty_ which it finds in +entertaining that of _limited_, space." Now, were the proposition but +fairly _put_, its absurdity would become transparent at once. Clearly, +there is no mere _difficulty_ in the case. The assertion intended, if +presented _according_ to its intention and without sophistry, would run +thus:--"The mind admits the idea of limitless, through the greater +_impossibility_ of entertaining that of limited, space." + +It must be immediately seen that this is not a question of two +statements between whose respective credibilities--or of two arguments +between whose respective validities--the _reason_ is called upon to +decide:--it is a matter of two conceptions, directly conflicting, and +each avowedly impossible, one of which the _intellect_ is supposed to be +capable of entertaining, on account of the greater _impossibility_ of +entertaining the other. The choice is _not_ made between two +difficulties;--it is merely _fancied_ to be made between two +impossibilities. Now of the former, there _are_ degrees--but of the +latter, none:--just as our impertinent letter-writer has already +suggested. A task _may_ be more or less difficult; but it is either +possible or not possible:--there are no gradations. It _might_ be more +_difficult_ to overthrow the Andes than an ant-hill; but it _can_ be no +more _impossible_ to annihilate the matter of the one than the matter of +the other. A man may jump ten feet with less _difficulty_ than he can +jump twenty, but the _impossibility_ of his leaping to the moon is not a +whit less than that of his leaping to the dog-star. + +Since all this is undeniable: since the choice of the mind is to be made +between _impossibilities_ of conception: since one impossibility cannot +be greater than another: and since, thus, one cannot be preferred to +another: the philosophers who not only maintain, on the grounds +mentioned, man's _idea_ of infinity but, on account of such +supposititious idea, _infinity itself_--are plainly engaged in +demonstrating one impossible thing to be possible by showing how it is +that some one other thing--is impossible too. This, it will be said, is +nonsense; and perhaps it is:--indeed I think it very capital +nonsense--but forego all claim to it as nonsense of mine. + +The readiest mode, however, of displaying the fallacy of the +philosophical argument on this question, is by simply adverting to a +_fact_ respecting it which has been hitherto quite overlooked--the fact +that the argument alluded to both proves and disproves its own +proposition. "The mind is impelled," say the theologians and others, "to +admit a _First Cause_, by the superior difficulty it experiences in +conceiving cause beyond cause without end." The quibble, as before, lies +in the word "difficulty"--but _here_ what is it employed to sustain? A +First Cause. And what is a First Cause? An ultimate termination of +causes. And what is an ultimate termination of causes? Finity--the +Finite. Thus the one quibble, in two processes, by God knows how many +philosophers, is made to support now Finity and now Infinity--could it +not be brought to support something besides? As for the +quibblers--_they_, at least, are insupportable. But--to dismiss them:--what +they prove in the one case is the identical nothing which they +demonstrate in the other. + +Of course, no one will suppose that I here contend for the absolute +impossibility of _that_ which we attempt to convey in the word +"Infinity." My purpose is but to show the folly of endeavoring to prove +Infinity itself or even our conception of it, by any such blundering +ratiocination as that which is ordinarily employed. + +Nevertheless, as an individual, I may be permitted to say that _I +cannot_ conceive Infinity, and am convinced that no human being can. A +mind not thoroughly self-conscious--not accustomed to the introspective +analysis of its own operations--will, it is true, often deceive itself by +supposing that it _has_ entertained the conception of which we speak. In +the effort to entertain it, we proceed step beyond step--we fancy point +still beyond point; and so long as we _continue_ the effort, it may be +said, in fact, that we are _tending_ to the formation of the idea +designed; while the strength of the impression that we actually form or +have formed it, is in the ratio of the period during which we keep up +the mental endeavor. But it is in the act of discontinuing the +endeavor--of fulfilling (as we think) the idea--of putting the finishing +stroke (as we suppose) to the conception--that we overthrow at once the +whole fabric of our fancy by resting upon some one ultimate and +therefore definite point. This fact, however, we fail to perceive, on +account of the absolute coincidence, in time, between the settling down +upon the ultimate point and the act of cessation in thinking.--In +attempting, on the other hand, to frame the idea of a _limited_ space, +we merely converse the processes which involve the impossibility. + +We _believe_ in a God. We may or may not _believe_ in finite or in +infinite space; but our belief, in such cases, is more properly +designated as _faith_, and is a matter quite distinct from that belief +proper--from that _intellectual_ belief--which presupposes the mental +conception. + +The fact is, that, upon the enunciation of any one of that class of +terms to which "Infinity" belongs--the class representing _thoughts of +thought_--he who has a right to say that he thinks _at all_, feels +himself called upon, _not_ to entertain a conception, but simply to +direct his mental vision toward some given point, in the intellectual +firmament, where lies a nebula never to be resolved. To solve it, +indeed, he makes no effort; for with a rapid instinct he comprehends, +not only the impossibility, but, as regards all human purposes, the +_inessentiality_, of its solution. He perceives that the Deity has not +_designed_ it to be solved. He sees, at once, that it lies _out_ of the +brain of man, and even _how_, if not exactly _why_, it lies out of it. +There _are_ people, I am aware, who, busying themselves in attempts at +the unattainable, acquire very easily, by dint of the jargon they emit, +among those thinkers-that-they-think with whom darkness and depth are +synonymous, a kind of cuttle-fish reputation for profundity; but the +finest quality of Thought is its self-cognizance; and, with some little +equivocation, it may be said that no fog of the mind can well be greater +than that which, extending to the very boundaries of the mental domain, +shuts out even these boundaries themselves from comprehension. + +It will now be understood that, in using the phrase, "Infinity of +Space," I make no call upon the reader to entertain the impossible +conception of an _absolute_ infinity. I refer simply to the "_utmost +conceivable expanse_" of space--a shadowy and fluctuating domain, now +shrinking, now swelling, in accordance with the vacillating energies of +the imagination. + +_Hitherto_, the Universe of stars has always been considered as +coincident with the Universe proper, as I have defined it in the +commencement of this Discourse. It has been always either directly or +indirectly assumed--at least since the dawn of intelligible +Astronomy--that, were it possible for us to attain any given point in +space, we should still find, on all sides of us, an interminable +succession of stars. This was the untenable idea of Pascal when making +perhaps the most successful attempt ever made, at periphrasing the +conception for which we struggle in the word "Universe." "It is a +sphere," he says, "of which the centre is everywhere, the circumference, +nowhere." But although this intended definition is, in fact, _no_ +definition of the Universe of _stars_, we may accept it, with some +mental reservation, as a definition (rigorous enough for all practical +purposes) of the Universe _proper_--that is to say, of the Universe of +_space_. This latter, then, let us regard as "_a sphere of which the +centre is everywhere, the circumference nowhere_." In fact, while we +find it impossible to fancy an _end_ to space, we have no difficulty in +picturing to ourselves any one of an infinity of _beginnings_. + +As our starting-point, then, let us adopt the _Godhead_. Of this +Godhead, _in itself_, he alone is not imbecile--he alone is not impious +who propounds--nothing. "_Nous ne connaissons rien_," says the Baron de +Bielfeld--"_Nous ne connaissons rien de la nature ou de l'essence de +Dieu:--pour savoir ce qu'il est, il faut etre Dieu meme._"--"We know +absolutely _nothing_ of the nature or essence of God:--in order to +comprehend what he is, we should have to be God ourselves." + +"_We should have to be God ourselves!_"--With a phrase so startling as +this yet ringing in my ears, I nevertheless venture to demand if this +our present ignorance of the Deity is an ignorance to which the soul is +_everlastingly_ condemned. + +By _Him_, however--_now_, at least, the Incomprehensible--by Him--assuming +him as _Spirit_--that is to say, as _not Matter_--a distinction which, for +all intelligible purposes, will stand well instead of a definition--by +Him, then, existing as Spirit, let us content ourselves, to-night, with +supposing to have been _created_, or made out of Nothing, by dint of his +Volition--at some point of Space which we will take as a centre--at some +period into which we do not pretend to inquire, but at all events +immensely remote--by Him, then again, let us suppose to have been +created----_what_? This is a vitally momentous epoch in our +considerations. _What_ is it that we are justified--that alone we are +justified in supposing to have been, primarily and solely, _created_? + +We have attained a point where only _Intuition_ can aid us:--but now let +me recur to the idea which I have already suggested as that alone which +we can properly entertain of intuition. It is but _the conviction +arising from those inductions or deductions of which the processes are +so shadowy as to escape our consciousness, elude our reason, or defy our +capacity of expression_. With this understanding, I now assert--that an +intuition altogether irresistible, although inexpressible, forces me to +the conclusion that what God originally created--that that Matter which, +by dint of his Volition, he first made from his Spirit, or from +Nihility, _could_ have been nothing but Matter in its utmost conceivable +state of----what?--of _Simplicity_? + +This will be found the sole absolute _assumption_ of my Discourse. I use +the word "assumption" in its ordinary sense; yet I maintain that even +this my primary proposition, is very, very far indeed, from being really +a mere assumption. Nothing was ever more certainly--no human conclusion +was ever, in fact, more regularly--more rigorously _de_duced:--but, alas! +the processes lie out of the human analysis--at all events are beyond the +utterance of the human tongue. + +Let us now endeavor to conceive what Matter must be, when, or if, in its +absolute extreme of _Simplicity_. Here the Reason flies at once to +Imparticularity--to a particle--to _one_ particle--a particle of _one_ +kind--of _one_ character--of _one_ nature--of _one size_--of one form--a +particle, therefore, "_without_ form and void"--a particle positively a +particle at all points--a particle absolutely unique, individual, +undivided, and not indivisible only because He who _created_ it, by dint +of his Will, can by an infinitely less energetic exercise of the same +Will, as a matter of course, divide it. + +_Oneness_, then, is all that I predicate of the originally created +Matter; but I propose to show that this _Oneness is a principle +abundantly sufficient to account for the constitution, the existing +phaenomena and the plainly inevitable annihilation of at least the +material Universe_. + +The willing into being the primordial particle, has completed the act, +or more properly the _conception_, of Creation. We now proceed to the +ultimate purpose for which we are to suppose the Particle created--that +is to say, the ultimate purpose so far as our considerations _yet_ +enable us to see it--the constitution of the Universe from it, the +Particle. + +This constitution has been effected by _forcing_ the originally and +therefore normally _One_ into the abnormal condition of _Many_. An +action of this character implies reaction. A diffusion from Unity, under +the conditions, involves a tendency to return into Unity--a tendency +ineradicable until satisfied. But on these points I will speak more +fully hereafter. + +The assumption of absolute Unity in the primordial Particle includes +that of infinite divisibility. Let us conceive the Particle, then, to be +only not totally exhausted by diffusion into Space. From the one +Particle, as a centre, let us suppose to be irradiated spherically--in +all directions--to immeasurable but still to definite distances in the +previously vacant space--a certain inexpressibly great yet limited number +of unimaginably yet not infinitely minute atoms. + +Now, of these atoms, thus diffused, or upon diffusion, what conditions +are we permitted--not to assume, but to infer, from consideration as well +of their source as of the character of the design apparent in their +diffusion? _Unity_ being their source, and _difference from Unity_ the +character of the design manifested in their diffusion, we are warranted +in supposing this character to be at least _generally_ preserved +throughout the design, and to form a portion of the design itself:--that +is to say, we shall be warranted in conceiving continual differences at +all points from the uniquity and simplicity of the origin. But, for +these reasons, shall we be justified in imagining the atoms +heterogeneous, dissimilar, unequal, and inequidistant? More +explicitly--are we to consider no two atoms as, at their diffusion, of +the same nature, or of the same form, or of the same size?--and, after +fulfilment of their diffusion into Space, is absolute inequidistance, +each from each, to be understood of all of them? In such arrangement, +under such conditions, we most easily and immediately comprehend the +subsequent most feasible carrying out to completion of any such design as +that which I have suggested--the design of variety out of unity--diversity +out of sameness--heterogeneity out of homogeneity--complexity out of +simplicity--in a word, the utmost possible multiplicity of _relation_ +out of the emphatically irrelative _One_. Undoubtedly, therefore, we +_should_ be warranted in assuming all that has been mentioned, but for +the reflection, first, that supererogation is not presumable of any +Divine Act; and, secondly, that the object supposed in view, appears as +feasible when some of the conditions in question are dispensed with, in +the beginning, as when all are understood immediately to exist. I mean +to say that some are involved in the rest, or so instantaneous a +consequence of them as to make the distinction inappreciable. Difference +of _size_, for example, will at once be brought about through the +tendency of one atom to a second, in preference to a third, on account +of particular inequidistance; which is to be comprehended as _particular +inequidistances between centres of quantity, in neighboring atoms of +different form_--a matter not at all interfering with the +generally-equable distribution of the atoms. Difference of _kind_, too, +is easily conceived to be merely a result of differences in size and +form, taken more or less conjointly:--in fact, since the _Unity_ of the +Particle Proper implies absolute homogeneity, we cannot imagine the +atoms, at their diffusion, differing in kind, without imagining, at the +same time, a special exercise of the Divine Will, at the emission of +each atom, for the purpose of effecting, in each, a change of its +essential nature:--so fantastic an idea is the less to be indulged, as +the object proposed is seen to be thoroughly attainable without such +minute and elaborate interposition. We perceive, therefore, upon the +whole, that it would be supererogatory, and consequently +unphilosophical, to predicate of the atoms, in view of their purposes, +any thing more than _difference of form_ at their dispersion, with +particular inequidistance after it--all other differences arising at +once out of these, in the very first processes of mass-constitution:--We +thus establish the Universe on a purely _geometrical_ basis. Of course, +it is by no means necessary to assume absolute difference, even of form, +among _all_ the atoms irradiated--any more than absolute particular +inequidistance of each from each. We are required to conceive merely +that no _neighboring_ atoms are of similar form--no atoms which can ever +approximate, until their inevitable reunition at the end. + +Although the immediate and perpetual _tendency_ of the disunited atoms +to return into their normal Unity, is implied, as I have said, in their +abnormal diffusion; still it is clear that this tendency will be without +consequence--a tendency and no more--until the diffusive energy, in +ceasing to be exerted, shall leave _it_, the tendency, free to seek its +satisfaction. The Divine Act, however, being considered as determinate, +and discontinued on fulfilment of the diffusion, we understand, at once, +a _reaction_--in other words, a _satisfiable_ tendency of the disunited +atoms to return into _One_. + +But the diffusive energy being withdrawn, and the reaction having +commenced in furtherance of the ultimate design--_that of the utmost +possible Relation_--this design is now in danger of being frustrated, in +detail, by reason of that very tendency to return which is to effect its +accomplishment in general. _Multiplicity_ is the object; but there is +nothing to prevent proximate atoms, from lapsing _at once_, through the +now satisfiable tendency--_before_ the fulfilment of any ends proposed in +multiplicity--into absolute oneness among themselves:--there is nothing to +impede the aggregation of various _unique_ masses, at various points of +space:--in other words, nothing to interfere with the accumulation of +various masses, each absolutely One. + +For the effectual and thorough completion of the general design, we thus +see the necessity for a repulsion of limited capacity--a separative +_something_ which, on withdrawal of the diffusive Volition, shall at the +same time allow the approach, and forbid the junction, of the atoms; +suffering them infinitely to approximate, while denying them positive +contact; in a word, having the power--_up to a certain epoch_--of +preventing their _coalition_, but no ability to interfere with their +_coalescence_ in any respect _or degree_. The repulsion, already +considered as so peculiarly limited in other regards, must be +understood, let me repeat, as having power to prevent absolute +coalition, _only up to a certain epoch_. Unless we are to conceive that +the appetite for Unity among the atoms is doomed to be satisfied +_never_;--unless we are to conceive that what had a beginning is to have +no end--a conception which cannot _really_ be entertained, however much +we may talk or dream of entertaining it--we are forced to conclude that +the repulsive influence imagined, will, finally--under pressure of the +_Unitendency collectively_ applied, but never and in no degree _until_, +on fulfilment of the Divine purposes, such collective application shall +be naturally made--yield to a force which, at that ultimate epoch, shall +be the superior force precisely to the extent required, and thus permit +the universal subsidence into the inevitable, because original and +therefore normal, _One_.--The conditions here to be reconciled are +difficult indeed:--we cannot even comprehend the possibility of their +conciliation;--nevertheless, the apparent impossibility is brilliantly +suggestive. + +That the repulsive something actually exists, _we see_. Man neither +employs, nor knows, a force sufficient to bring two atoms into contact. +This is but the well-established proposition of the impenetrability of +matter. All Experiment proves--all Philosophy admits it. The _design_ of +the repulsion--the necessity for its existence--I have endeavored to show; +but from all attempt at investigating its nature have religiously +abstained; this on account of an intuitive conviction that the principle +at issue is strictly spiritual--lies in a recess impervious to our +present understanding--lies involved in a consideration of what now--in +our human state--is _not_ to be considered--in a consideration of _Spirit +in itself_. I feel, in a word, that here the God has interposed, and +here only, because here and here only the knot demanded the +interposition of the God. + +In fact, while the tendency of the diffused atoms to return into Unity, +will be recognized, at once, as the principle of the Newtonian Gravity, +what I have spoken of as a repulsive influence prescribing limits to the +(immediate) satisfaction of the tendency, will be understood as _that_ +which we have been in the practice of designating now as heat, now as +magnetism, now as _electricity_; displaying our ignorance of its awful +character in the vacillation of the phraseology with which we endeavor +to circumscribe it. + +Calling it, merely for the moment, electricity, we know that all +experimental analysis of electricity has given, as an ultimate result, +the principle, or seeming principle, _heterogeneity_. _Only_ where +things differ is electricity apparent; and it is presumable that they +_never_ differ where it is not developed at least, if not apparent. Now, +this result is in the fullest keeping with that which I have reached +unempirically. The design of the repulsive influence I have maintained +to be that of preventing immediate Unity among the diffused atoms; and +these atoms are represented as different each from each. _Difference_ is +their character--their essentiality--just as _no-difference_ was the +essentiality of their source. When we say, then, that an attempt to +bring any two of these atoms together would induce an effort, on the +part of the repulsive influence, to prevent the contact, we may as well +use the strictly convertible sentence that an attempt to bring together +any two differences will result in a development of electricity. All +existing bodies, of course, are composed of these atoms in proximate +contact, and are therefore to be considered as mere assemblages of more +or fewer differences; and the resistance made by the repulsive spirit, +on bringing together any two such assemblages, would be in the ratio of +the two sums of the differences in each:--an expression which, when +reduced, is equivalent to this:--_The amount of electricity developed on +the approximation of two bodies, is proportional to the difference +between the respective sums of the atoms of which the bodies are +composed._ That _no_ two bodies are absolutely alike, is a simple +corollary from all that has been here said. Electricity, therefore, +existing always, is _developed_ whenever _any_ bodies, but _manifested_ +only when bodies of appreciable difference, are brought into +approximation. + +To electricity--so, for the present, continuing to call it--we _may_ not +be wrong in referring the various physical appearances of light, heat +and magnetism; but far less shall we be liable to err in attributing to +this strictly spiritual principle the more important phaenomena of +vitality, consciousness and _Thought_. On this topic, however, I need +pause _here_ merely to suggest that these phaenomena, whether observed +generally or in detail, seem to proceed _at least in the ratio of the +heterogeneous_. + +Discarding now the two equivocal terms, "gravitation" and "electricity," +let us adopt the more definite expressions, "_attraction_" and +"_repulsion_." The former is the body; the latter the soul: the one is +the material; the other the spiritual, principle of the Universe. _No +other principles exist._ _All_ phaenomena are referable to one, or to the +other, or to both combined. So rigorously is this the case--so thoroughly +demonstrable is it that attraction and repulsion are the _sole_ +properties through which we perceive the Universe--in other words, by +which Matter is manifested to Mind--that, for all merely argumentative +purposes, we are fully justified in assuming that matter _exists_ only +as attraction and repulsion--that attraction and repulsion _are_ +matter:--there being no conceivable case in which we may not employ the +term "matter" and the terms "attraction" and "repulsion," taken +together, as equivalent, and therefore convertible, expressions in +Logic. + +I said, just now, that what I have described as the tendency of the +diffused atoms to return into their original unity, would be understood +as the principle of the Newtonian law of gravity: and, in fact, there +can be little difficulty in such an understanding, if we look at the +Newtonian gravity in a merely general view, as a force impelling matter +to seek matter; that is to say, when we pay no attention to the known +_modus operandi_ of the Newtonian force. The general coincidence +satisfies us; but, upon looking closely, we see, in detail, much that +appears _in_coincident, and much in regard to which no coincidence, at +least, is established. For example; the Newtonian gravity, when we think +of it in certain moods, does _not_ seem to be a tendency to _oneness_ at +all, but rather a tendency of all bodies in all directions--a phrase +apparently expressive of a tendency to diffusion. Here, then, is an +_in_coincidence. Again; when we reflect on the mathematical _law_ +governing the Newtonian tendency, we see clearly that no coincidence has +been made good, in respect of the _modus operandi_, at least, between +gravitation as known to exist and that seemingly simple and direct +tendency which I have assumed. + +In fact, I have attained a point at which it will be advisable to +strengthen my position by reversing my processes. So far, we have gone +on _a priori_, from an abstract consideration of _Simplicity_, as that +quality most likely to have characterized the original action of God. +Let us now see whether the established facts of the Newtonian +Gravitation may not afford us, _a posteriori_, some legitimate +inductions. + +What does the Newtonian law declare?--That all bodies attract each other +with forces proportional to their quantities of matter and inversely +proportional to the squares of their distances. Purposely, I have here +given, in the first place, the vulgar version of the law; and I confess +that in this, as in most other vulgar versions of great truths, we find +little of a suggestive character. Let us now adopt a more philosophical +phraseology:--_Every atom, of every body, attracts every other atom, both +of its own and of every other body, with a force which varies inversely +as the squares of the distances between the attracting and attracted +atom._--Here, indeed, a flood of suggestion bursts upon the mind. + +But let us see distinctly what it was that Newton _proved_--according to +the grossly irrational definitions of _proof_ prescribed by the +metaphysical schools. He was forced to content himself with showing how +thoroughly the motions of an imaginary Universe, composed of attracting +and attracted atoms obedient to the law he announced, coincide with +those of the actually existing Universe so far as it comes under our +observation. This was the amount of his _demonstration_--that is to say, +this was the amount of it, according to the conventional cant of the +"philosophies." His successes added proof multiplied by proof--such proof +as a sound intellect admits--but the _demonstration_ of the law itself, +persist the metaphysicians, had not been strengthened in any degree. +"_Ocular_, _physical_ proof," however, of attraction, here upon Earth, +in accordance with the Newtonian theory, was, at length, much to the +satisfaction of some intellectual grovellers, afforded. This proof arose +collaterally and incidentally (as nearly all important truths have +arisen) out of an attempt to ascertain the mean density of the Earth. In +the famous Maskelyne, Cavendish and Bailly experiments for this purpose, +the attraction of the mass of a mountain was seen, felt, measured, and +found to be mathematically consistent with the immortal theory of the +British astronomer. + +But in spite of this confirmation of that which needed none--in spite of +the so-called corroboration of the "theory" by the so-called "ocular and +physical proof"--in spite of the _character_ of this corroboration--the +ideas which even really philosophical men cannot help imbibing of +gravity--and, especially, the ideas of it which ordinary men get and +contentedly maintain, are _seen_ to have been derived, for the most +part, from a consideration of the principle as they find it +developed--_merely in the planet upon which they stand_. + +Now, to what does so partial a consideration tend--to what species of +error does it give rise? On the Earth we _see_ and _feel_, only that +gravity impels all bodies towards the _centre_ of the Earth. No man in +the common walks of life could be _made_ to see or to feel anything +else--could be made to perceive that anything, anywhere, has a perpetual, +gravitating tendency in any _other_ direction than to the centre of the +Earth; yet (with an exception hereafter to be specified) it is a fact +that every earthly thing (not to speak now of every heavenly thing) has +a tendency not _only_ to the Earth's centre but in every conceivable +direction besides. + +Now, although the philosophic cannot be said to _err with_ the vulgar in +this matter, they nevertheless permit themselves to be influenced, +without knowing it, by the _sentiment_ of the vulgar idea. "Although the +Pagan fables are not believed," says Bryant, in his very erudite +"Mythology," "yet we forget ourselves continually and make inferences +from them as from existing realities." I mean to assert that the merely +_sensitive perception_ of gravity as we experience it on Earth, beguiles +mankind into the fancy of _concentralization_ or _especiality_ +respecting it--has been continually biasing towards this fancy even the +mightiest intellects--perpetually, although imperceptibly, leading them +away from the real characteristics of the principle; thus preventing +them, up to this date, from ever getting a glimpse of that vital truth +which lies in a diametrically opposite direction--behind the principle's +_essential_ characteristics--those, _not_ of concentralization or +especiality--but of _universality_ and _diffusion_. This "vital truth" is +_Unity_ as the _source_ of the phaenomenon. + +Let me now repeat the definition of gravity:--_Every atom, of every body, +attracts every other atom, both of its own and of every other body_, +with a force which varies inversely as the squares of the distances of +the attracting and attracted atom. + +Here let the reader pause with me, for a moment, in contemplation of the +miraculous--of the ineffable--of the altogether unimaginable complexity of +relation involved in the fact that _each atom attracts every other +atom_--involved merely in this fact of the attraction, without reference +to the law or mode in which the attraction is manifested--involved +_merely_ in the fact that each atom attracts every other atom _at all_, +in a wilderness of atoms so numerous that those which go to the +composition of a cannon-ball, exceed, probably, in mere point of number, +all the stars which go to the constitution of the Universe. + +Had we discovered, simply, that each atom tended to some one favorite +point--to some especially attractive atom--we should still have fallen +upon a discovery which, in itself, would have sufficed to overwhelm the +mind:--but what is it that we are actually called upon to comprehend? +That each atom attracts--sympathizes with the most delicate movements of +every other atom, and with each and with all at the same time, and +forever, and according to a determinate law of which the complexity, +even considered by itself solely, is utterly beyond the grasp of the +imagination of man. If I propose to ascertain the influence of one mote +in a sunbeam upon its neighboring mote, I cannot accomplish my purpose +without first counting and weighing all the atoms in the Universe and +defining the precise positions of all at one particular moment. If I +venture to displace, by even the billionth part of an inch, the +microscopical speck of dust which lies now upon the point of my finger, +what is the character of that act upon which I have adventured? I have +done a deed which shakes the Moon in her path, which causes the Sun to +be no longer the Sun, and which alters forever the destiny of the +multitudinous myriads of stars that roll and glow in the majestic +presence of their Creator. + +_These_ ideas--conceptions such as _these_--unthoughtlike +thoughts--soul-reveries rather than conclusions or even considerations +of the intellect:--ideas, I repeat, such as these, are such as we can +alone hope profitably to entertain in any effort at grasping the great +principle, _Attraction_. + +But now,--_with_ such ideas--with such a _vision_ of the marvellous +complexity of Attraction fairly in his mind--let any person competent of +thought on such topics as these, set himself to the task of imagining a +_principle_ for the phaenomena observed--a condition from which they +sprang. + +Does not so evident a brotherhood among the atoms point to a common +parentage? Does not a sympathy so omniprevalent, so ineradicable, and so +thoroughly irrespective, suggest a common paternity as its source? Does +not one extreme impel the reason to the other? Does not the infinitude +of division refer to the utterness of individuality? Does not the +entireness of the complex hint at the perfection of the simple? It is +_not_ that the atoms, as we see them, are divided or that they are +complex in their relations--but that they are inconceivably divided and +unutterably complex:--it is the extremeness of the conditions to which I +now allude, rather than to the conditions themselves. In a word, is it +not because the atoms were, at some remote epoch of time, even _more +than together_--is it not because originally, and therefore normally, +they were _One_--that now, in all circumstances--at all points--in all +directions--by all modes of approach--in all relations and through all +conditions--they struggle _back_ to this absolutely, this irrelatively, +this unconditionally _one_? + +Some person may here demand:--"Why--since it is to the _One_ that the +atoms struggle back--do we not find and define Attraction 'a merely +general tendency to a centre?'--why, in especial, do not _your_ +atoms--the atoms which you describe as having been irradiated from a +centre--proceed at once, rectilinearly, back to the central point of +their origin?" + +I reply that _they do_; as will be distinctly shown; but that the cause +of their so doing is quite irrespective of the centre _as such_. They +all tend rectilinearly towards a centre, because of the sphereicity with +which they have been irradiated into space. Each atom, forming one of a +generally uniform globe of atoms, finds more atoms in the direction of +the centre, of course, than in any other, and in that direction, +therefore, is impelled--but is _not_ thus impelled because the centre is +_the point of its origin_. It is not to any _point_ that the atoms are +allied. It is not any _locality_, either in the concrete or in the +abstract, to which I suppose them bound. Nothing like _location_ was +conceived as their origin. Their source lies in the principle, _Unity_. +_This_ is their lost parent. _This_ they seek always--immediately--in all +directions--wherever it is even partially to be found; thus appeasing, in +some measure, the ineradicable tendency, while on the way to its +absolute satisfaction in the end. It follows from all this, that any +principle which shall be adequate to account for the _law_, or _modus +operandi_, of the attractive force in general, will account for this law +in particular:--that is to say, any principle which will show why the +atoms should tend to their _general centre of irradiation_ with forces +inversely proportional to the squares of the distances, will be admitted +as satisfactorily accounting, at the same time, for the tendency, +according to the same law, of these atoms each to each:--_for_ the +tendency to the centre _is_ merely the tendency each to each, and not +any tendency to a centre as such.--Thus it will be seen, also, that the +establishment of my propositions would involve no _necessity_ of +modification in the terms of the Newtonian definition of Gravity, which +declares that each atom attracts each other atom and so forth, and +declares this merely; but (always under the supposition that what I +propose be, in the end, admitted) it seems clear that some error might +occasionally be avoided, in the future processes of Science, were a more +ample phraseology adopted:--for instance:--"Each atom tends to every other +atom &c. with a force &c.: _the general result being a tendency of all, +with a similar force, to a general centre_." + +The reversal of our processes has thus brought us to an identical +result; but, while in the one process _intuition_ was the +starting-point, in the other it was the goal. In commencing the former +journey I could only say that, with an irresistible intuition, I _felt_ +Simplicity to have been the characteristic of the original action of +God:--in ending the latter I can only declare that, with an irresistible +intuition, I perceive Unity to have been the source of the observed +phaenomena of the Newtonian gravitation. Thus, according to the schools, +I _prove_ nothing. So be it:--I design but to suggest--and to _convince_ +through the suggestion. I am proudly aware that there exist many of the +most profound and cautiously discriminative human intellects which +cannot _help_ being abundantly content with my--suggestions. To these +intellects--as to my own--there is no mathematical demonstration which +_could_ bring the least additional _true proof_ of the great _Truth_ +which I have advanced--_the truth of Original Unity as the source--as the +principle of the Universal Phaenomena_. For my part, I am not so sure +that I speak and see--I am not so sure that my heart beats and that my +soul lives:--of the rising of to-morrow's sun--a probability that as yet +lies in the Future--I do not pretend to be one thousandth part as sure--as +I am of the irretrievably by-gone _Fact_ that All Things and All +Thoughts of Things, with all their ineffable Multiplicity of Relation, +sprang at once into being from the primordial and irrelative _One_. + +Referring to the Newtonian Gravity, Dr. Nichol, the eloquent author of +"The Architecture of the Heavens," says:--"In truth we have no reason to +suppose this great Law, as now revealed, to be the ultimate or simplest, +and therefore the universal and all-comprehensive, form of a great +Ordinance. The mode in which its intensity diminishes with the element +of distance, has not the aspect of an ultimate _principle_; which always +assumes the simplicity and self-evidence of those axioms which +constitute the basis of Geometry." + +Now, it is quite true that "ultimate principles," in the common +understanding of the words, always assume the simplicity of geometrical +axioms--(as for "self-evidence," there is no such thing)--but these +principles are clearly _not_ "ultimate;" in other terms what we are in +the habit of calling principles are no principles, properly +speaking--since there can be but one _principle_, the Volition of God. We +have no right to assume, then, from what we observe in rules that we +choose foolishly to name "principles," anything at all in respect to the +characteristics of a principle proper. The "ultimate principles" of +which Dr. Nichol speaks as having geometrical simplicity, may and do +have this geometrical turn, as being part and parcel of a vast +geometrical system, and thus a system of simplicity itself--in which, +nevertheless, the _truly_ ultimate principle is, _as we know_, the +consummation of the complex--that is to say, of the unintelligible--for is +it not the Spiritual Capacity of God? + +I quoted Dr. Nichol's remark, however, not so much to question its +philosophy, as by way of calling attention to the fact that, while all +men have admitted _some_ principle as existing behind the Law of +Gravity, no attempt has been yet made to point out what this principle +in particular _is_:--if we except, perhaps, occasional fantastic efforts +at referring it to Magnetism, or Mesmerism, or Swedenborgianism, or +Transcendentalism, or some other equally delicious _ism_ of the same +species, and invariably patronized by one and the same species of +people. The great mind of Newton, while boldly grasping the Law itself, +shrank from the principle of the Law. The more fluent and comprehensive +at least, if not the more patient and profound, sagacity of Laplace, had +not the courage to attack it. But hesitation on the part of these two +astronomers it is, perhaps, not so very difficult to understand. They, +as well as all the first class of mathematicians, were mathematicians +_solely_:--their intellect, at least, had a firmly-pronounced +mathematico-physical tone. What lay not distinctly within the domain of +Physics, or of Mathematics, seemed to them either Non-Entity or Shadow. +Nevertheless, we may well wonder that Leibnitz, who was a marked +exception to the general rule in these respects, and whose mental +temperament was a singular admixture of the mathematical with the +physico-metaphysical, did not at once investigate and establish the +point at issue. Either Newton or Laplace, seeking a principle and +discovering none _physical_, would have rested contentedly in the +conclusion that there was absolutely none; but it is almost impossible +to fancy, of Leibnitz, that, having exhausted in his search the physical +dominions, he would not have stepped at once, boldly and hopefully, amid +his old familiar haunts in the kingdom of Metaphysics. Here, indeed, it +is clear that he _must_ have adventured in search of the treasure:--that +he did not find it after all, was, perhaps, because his fairy guide, +Imagination, was not sufficiently well-grown, or well-educated, to +direct him aright. + +I observed, just now, that, in fact, there had been certain vague +attempts at referring Gravity to some very uncertain _isms_. These +attempts, however, although considered bold and justly so considered, +looked no farther than to the generality--the merest generality--of the +Newtonian Law. Its _modus operandi_ has never, to my knowledge, been +approached in the way of an effort at explanation. It is, therefore, +with no unwarranted fear of being taken for a madman at the outset, and +before I can bring my propositions fairly to the eye of those who alone +are competent to decide upon them, that I here declare the _modus +operandi_ of the Law of Gravity to be an exceedingly simple and +perfectly explicable thing--that is to say, when we make our advances +towards it in just gradations and in the true direction--when we regard +it from the proper point of view. + +Whether we reach the idea of absolute _Unity_ as the source of All +Things, from a consideration of Simplicity as the most probable +characteristic of the original action of God;--whether we arrive at it +from an inspection of the universality of relation in the gravitating +phaenomena;--or whether we attain it as a result of the mutual +corroboration afforded by both processes;--still, the idea itself, if +entertained at all, is entertained in inseparable connection with +another idea--that of the condition of the Universe of stars as we _now_ +perceive it--that is to say, a condition of immeasurable _diffusion_ +through space. Now a connection between these two ideas--unity and +diffusion--cannot be established unless through the entertainment of a +third idea--that of _irradiation_. Absolute Unity being taken as a +centre, then the existing Universe of stars is the result of +_irradiation_ from that centre. + +Now, the laws of irradiation are _known_. They are part and parcel of +the _sphere_. They belong to the class of _indisputable geometrical +properties_. We say of them, "they are true--they are evident." To demand +_why_ they are true, would be to demand why the axioms are true upon +which their demonstration is based. _Nothing_ is demonstrable, strictly +speaking; but _if_ anything _be_, then the properties--the laws in +question are demonstrated. + +But these laws--what do they declare? Irradiation--how--by what steps does +it proceed outwardly from a centre? + +From a _luminous_ centre, _Light_ issues by irradiation; and the +quantities of light received upon any given plane, supposed to be +shifting its position so as to be now nearer the centre and now farther +from it, will be diminished in the same proportion as the squares of the +distances of the plane from the luminous body, are increased; and will +be increased in the same proportion as these squares are diminished. + +The expression of the law may be thus generalized:--the number of +light-particles (or, if the phrase be preferred, the number of +light-impressions) received upon the shifting plane, will be _inversely_ +proportional with the squares of the distances of the plane. +Generalizing yet again, we may say that the diffusion--the scattering--the +irradiation, in a word--is _directly_ proportional with the squares of +the distances. + +[Illustration] + +For example: at the distance B, from the luminous centre A, a certain +number of particles are so diffused as to occupy the surface B. Then at +double the distance--that is to say at C--they will be so much farther +diffused as to occupy four such surfaces:--at treble the distance, or at +D, they will be so much farther separated as to occupy nine such +surfaces:--while, at quadruple the distance, or at E, they will have +become so scattered as to spread themselves over sixteen such +surfaces--and so on forever. + +In saying, generally, that the irradiation proceeds in direct proportion +with the squares of the distances, we use the term irradiation to +express _the degree of the diffusion_ as we proceed outwardly from the +centre. Conversing the idea, and employing the word "concentralization" +to express _the degree of the drawing together_ as we come back toward +the centre from an outward position, we may say that concentralization +proceeds _inversely_ as the squares of the distances. In other words, we +have reached the conclusion that, on the hypothesis that matter was +originally irradiated from a centre and is now returning to it, the +concentralization, in the return, proceeds _exactly as we know the force +of gravitation to proceed_. + +Now here, if we could be permitted to assume that concentralization +exactly represented the _force of the tendency to the centre_--that the +one was exactly proportional to the other, and that the two proceeded +together--we should have shown all that is required. The sole difficulty +existing, then, is to establish a direct proportion between +"concentralization" and the _force_ of concentralization; and this is +done, of course, if we establish such proportion between "irradiation" +and the _force_ of irradiation. + +A very slight inspection of the Heavens assures us that the stars have a +certain general uniformity, equability, or equidistance, of distribution +through that region of space in which, collectively, and in a roughly +globular form, they are situated:--this species of very general, rather +than absolute, equability, being in full keeping with my deduction of +inequidistance, within certain limits, among the originally diffused +atoms, as a corollary from the evident design of infinite complexity of +relation out of irrelation. I started, it will be remembered, with the +idea of a generally uniform but particularly _un_uniform distribution of +the atoms;--an idea, I repeat, which an inspection of the stars, as they +exist, confirms. + +But even in the merely general equability of distribution, as regards +the atoms, there appears a difficulty which, no doubt, has already +suggested itself to those among my readers who have borne in mind that I +suppose this equability of distribution effected through _irradiation +from a centre_. The very first glance at the idea, irradiation, forces +us to the entertainment of the hitherto unseparated and seemingly +inseparable idea of agglomeration about a centre, with dispersion as we +recede from it--the idea, in a word, of _in_equability of distribution in +respect to the matter irradiated. + +Now, I have elsewhere[1] observed that it is by just such difficulties +as the one now in question--such roughnesses--such peculiarities--such +protuberances above the plane of the ordinary--that Reason feels her way, +if at all, in her search for the True. By the difficulty--the +"peculiarity"--now presented, I leap at once to _the_ secret--a secret +which I might never have attained _but_ for the peculiarity and the +inferences which, _in its mere character of peculiarity_, it affords me. + + [1] "_Murders in the Rue Morgue_"--p. 133. + +The process of thought, at this point, may be thus roughly sketched:--I +say to myself--"Unity, as I have explained it, is a truth--I feel it. +Diffusion is a truth--I see it. Irradiation, by which alone these two +truths are reconciled, is a consequent truth--I perceive it. _Equability_ +of diffusion, first deduced _a priori_ and then corroborated by the +inspection of phaenomena, is also a truth--I fully admit it. So far all is +clear around me:--there are no clouds behind which _the_ secret--the great +secret of the gravitating _modus operandi_--can possibly lie hidden;--but +this secret lies _hereabouts_, most assuredly; and _were_ there but a +cloud in view, I should be driven to suspicion of that cloud." And now, +just as I say this, there actually comes a cloud into view. This cloud +is the seeming impossibility of reconciling my truth, _irradiation_, +with my truth, _equability of diffusion_. I say now:--"Behind this +_seeming_ impossibility is to be found what I desire." I do not say +"_real_ impossibility;" for invincible faith in my truths assures me +that it is a mere difficulty after all--but I go on to say, with +unflinching confidence, that, _when_ this _difficulty_ shall be solved, +we shall find, _wrapped up in the process of solution_, the key to the +secret at which we aim. Moreover--I _feel_ that we shall discover _but +one_ possible solution of the difficulty; this for the reason that, were +there two, one would be supererogatory--would be fruitless--would be +empty--would contain no key--since no duplicate key can be needed to any +secret of Nature. + +And now, let us see:--Our usual notions of irradiation--in fact _all_ our +distinct notions of it--are caught merely from the process as we see it +exemplified in _Light_. Here there is a _continuous_ outpouring of +_ray-streams_, and _with a force which we have at least no right to +suppose varies at all_. Now, in any such irradiation _as +this_--continuous and of unvarying force--the regions nearer the centre +must _inevitably_ be always more crowded with the irradiated matter than +the regions more remote. But I have assumed _no_ such irradiation _as +this_. I assumed no _continuous_ irradiation; and for the simple reason +that such an assumption would have involved, first, the necessity of +entertaining a conception which I have shown no man _can_ entertain, and +which (as I will more fully explain hereafter) all observation of the +firmament refutes--the conception of the absolute infinity of the +Universe of stars--and would have involved, secondly, the impossibility +of understanding a reaction--that is, gravitation--as existing now--since, +while an act is continued, no reaction, of course, can take place. My +assumption, then, or rather my inevitable deduction from just +premises--was that of a _determinate_ irradiation--one finally +_dis_continued. + +Let me now describe the sole possible mode in which it is conceivable +that matter could have been diffused through space, so as to fulfil the +conditions at once of irradiation and of generally equable distribution. + +For convenience of illustration, let us imagine, in the first place, a +hollow sphere of glass, or of anything else, occupying the space +throughout which the universal matter is to be thus equally diffused, by +means of irradiation, from the absolute, irrelative, unconditional +particle, placed in the centre of the sphere. + +Now, a certain exertion of the diffusive power (presumed to be the +Divine Volition)--in other words, a certain _force_--whose measure is the +quantity of matter--that is to say, the number of atoms--emitted; emits, +by irradiation, this certain number of atoms; forcing them in all +directions outwardly from the centre--their proximity to each other +diminishing as they proceed--until, finally, they are distributed, +loosely, over the interior surface of the sphere. + +When these atoms have attained this position, or while proceeding to +attain it, a second and inferior exercise of the same force--or a second +and inferior force of the same character--emits, in the same manner--that +is to say, by irradiation as before--a second stratum of atoms which +proceeds to deposit itself upon the first; the number of atoms, in this +case as in the former, being of course the measure of the force which +emitted them; in other words the force being precisely adapted to the +purpose it effects--the force and the number of atoms sent out by the +force, being _directly proportional_. + +When this second stratum has reached its destined position--or while +approaching it--a third still inferior exertion of the force, or a third +inferior force of a similar character--the number of atoms emitted being +in _all_ cases the measure of the force--proceeds to deposit a third +stratum upon the second:--and so on, until these concentric strata, +growing gradually less and less, come down at length to the central +point; and the diffusive matter, simultaneously with the diffusive +force, is exhausted. + +We have now the sphere filled, through means of irradiation, with atoms +equably diffused. The two necessary conditions--those of irradiation and +of equable diffusion--are satisfied; and by the _sole_ process in which +the possibility of their simultaneous satisfaction is conceivable. For +this reason, I confidently expect to find, lurking in the present +condition of the atoms as distributed throughout the sphere, the secret +of which I am in search--the all-important principle of the _modus +operandi_ of the Newtonian law. Let us examine, then, the actual +condition of the atoms. + +They lie in a series of concentric strata. They are equably diffused +throughout the sphere. They have been irradiated into these states. + +The atoms being _equably_ distributed, the greater the superficial +extent of any of these concentric strata, or spheres, the more atoms +will lie upon it. In other words, the number of atoms lying upon the +surface of any one of the concentric spheres, is directly proportional +with the extent of that surface. + +_But, in any series of concentric spheres, the surfaces are directly +proportional with the squares of the distances from the centre._[2] + + [2] Succinctly--The surfaces of spheres are as the squares of + their radii. + +Therefore the number of atoms in any stratum is directly proportional +with the square of that stratum's distance from the centre. + +But the number of atoms in any stratum is the measure of the force which +emitted that stratum--that is to say, is _directly proportional_ with the +force. + +Therefore the force which irradiated any stratum is directly +proportional with the square of that stratum's distance from the +centre:--or, generally, + +_The force of the irradiation has been directly proportional with the +squares of the distances._ + +Now, Reaction, as far as we know anything of it, is Action conversed. +The _general_ principle of Gravity being, in the first place, understood +as the reaction of an act--as the expression of a desire on the part of +Matter, while existing in a state of diffusion, to return into the Unity +whence it was diffused; and, in the second place, the mind being called +upon to determine the _character_ of the desire--the manner in which it +would, naturally, be manifested; in other words, being called upon to +conceive a probable law, or _modus operandi_, for the return; could not +well help arriving at the conclusion that this law of return would be +precisely the converse of the law of departure. That such would be the +case, any one, at least, would be abundantly justified in taking for +granted, until such time as some person should suggest something like a +plausible reason why it should _not_ be the case--until such period as a +law of return shall be imagined which the intellect can consider as +preferable. + +Matter, then, irradiated into space with a force varying as the squares +of the distances, might, _a priori_, be supposed to return towards its +centre of irradiation with a force varying _inversely_ as the squares of +the distances: and I have already shown[3] that any principle which will +explain why the atoms should tend, according to any law, to the general +centre, must be admitted as satisfactorily explaining, at the same time, +why, according to the same law, they should tend each to each. For, in +fact, the tendency to the general centre is not to a centre as such, but +because of its being a point in tending towards which each atom tends +most directly to its real and essential centre, _Unity_--the absolute +and final Union of all. + + [3] Page 44. + +The consideration here involved presents to my own mind no embarrassment +whatever--but this fact does not blind me to the possibility of its being +obscure to those who may have been less in the habit of dealing with +abstractions:--and, upon the whole, it may be as well to look at the +matter from one or two other points of view. + +The absolute, irrelative particle primarily created by the Volition of +God, must have been in a condition of positive _normality_, or +rightfulness--for wrongfulness implies _relation_. Right is positive; +wrong is negative--is merely the negation of right; as cold is the +negation of heat--darkness of light. That a thing may be wrong, it is +necessary that there be some other thing in _relation_ to which it _is_ +wrong--some condition which it fails to satisfy; some law which it +violates; some being whom it aggrieves. If there be no such being, law, +or condition, in respect to which the thing is wrong--and, still more +especially, if no beings, laws, or conditions exist at all--then the +thing can_not_ be wrong and consequently must be _right_. Any deviation +from normality involves a tendency to return into it. A difference from +the normal--from the right--from the just--can be understood as effected +only by the overcoming a difficulty; and if the force which overcomes +the difficulty be not infinitely continued, the ineradicable tendency to +return will at length be permitted to act for its own satisfaction. Upon +withdrawal of the force, the tendency acts. This is the principle of +reaction as the inevitable consequence of finite action. Employing a +phraseology of which the seeming affectation will be pardoned for its +expressiveness, we may say that Reaction is the return from the +condition of _as it is and ought not to be_ into the condition of _as it +was, originally, and therefore ought to be_:--and let me add here that +the _absolute_ force of Reaction would no doubt be always found in +direct proportion with the reality--the truth--the absoluteness--of the +_originality_--if ever it were possible to measure this latter:--and, +consequently, the greatest of all conceivable reactions must be that +produced by the tendency which we now discuss--the tendency to return +into the _absolutely original_--into the _supremely_ primitive. Gravity, +then, _must be the strongest of forces_--an idea reached _a priori_ and +abundantly confirmed by induction. What use I make of the idea, will be +seen in the sequel. + +The atoms, now, having been diffused from their normal condition of +Unity, seek to return to----what? Not to any particular _point_, +certainly; for it is clear that if, upon the diffusion, the whole +Universe of matter had been projected, collectively, to a distance from +the point of irradiation, the atomic tendency to the general centre of +the sphere would not have been disturbed in the least:--the atoms would +not have sought the point _in absolute space_ from which they were +originally impelled. It is merely the _condition_, and not the point or +locality at which this condition took its rise, that these atoms seek to +re-establish;--it is merely _that condition which is their normality_, +that they desire. "But they seek a centre," it will be said, "and a +centre is a point." True; but they seek this point not in its character +of point--(for, were the whole sphere moved from its position, they would +seek, equally, the centre; and the centre _then_ would be a _new_ +point)--but because it so happens, on account of the form in which they +collectively exist--(that of the sphere)--that only _through_ the point in +question--the sphere's centre--they can attain their true object, Unity. +In the direction of the centre each atom perceives more atoms than in +any other direction. Each atom is impelled towards the centre because +along the straight line joining it and the centre and passing on to the +circumference beyond, there lie a greater number of atoms than along any +other straight line--a greater number of objects that seek it, the +individual atom--a greater number of tendencies to Unity--a greater number +of satisfactions for its own tendency to Unity--in a word, because in the +direction of the centre lies the utmost possibility of satisfaction, +generally, for its own individual appetite. To be brief, the +_condition_, Unity, is all that is really sought; and if the atoms +_seem_ to seek the centre of the sphere, it is only impliedly, through +implication--because such centre happens to imply, to include, or to +involve, the only essential centre, Unity. But _on account of_ this +implication or involution, there is no possibility of practically +separating the tendency to Unity in the abstract, from the tendency to +the concrete centre. Thus the tendency of the atoms to the general +centre _is_, to all practical intents and for all logical purposes, the +tendency each to each; and the tendency each to each _is_ the tendency +to the centre; and the one tendency may be assumed _as_ the other; +whatever will apply to the one must be thoroughly applicable to the +other; and, in conclusion, whatever principle will satisfactorily +explain the one, cannot be questioned as an explanation of the other. + +In looking carefully around me for rational objection to what I have +advanced, I am able to discover _nothing_;--but of that class of +objections usually urged by the doubters for Doubt's sake, I very +readily perceive _three_; and proceed to dispose of them in order. + +It may be said, first: "The proof that the force of irradiation (in the +case described) is directly proportional to the squares of the +distances, depends upon an unwarranted assumption--that of the number of +atoms in each stratum being the measure of the force with which they are +emitted." + +I reply, not only that I am warranted in such assumption, but that I +should be utterly _un_warranted in any other. What I assume is, simply, +that an effect is the measure of its cause--that every exercise of the +Divine Will will be proportional to that which demands the exertion--that +the means of Omnipotence, or of Omniscience, will be exactly adapted to +its purposes. Neither can a deficiency nor an excess of cause bring to +pass any effect. Had the force which irradiated any stratum to its +position, been either more or less than was needed for the purpose--that +is to say, not _directly proportional_ to the purpose--then to its +position that stratum could not have been irradiated. Had the force +which, with a view to general equability of distribution, emitted the +proper number of atoms for each stratum, been not _directly +proportional_ to the number, then the number would _not_ have been the +number demanded for the equable distribution. + +The second supposable objection is somewhat better entitled to an +answer. + +It is an admitted principle in Dynamics that every body, on receiving an +impulse, or disposition to move, will move onward in a straight line, in +the direction imparted by the impelling force, until deflected, or +stopped, by some other force. How then, it may be asked, is my first or +external stratum of atoms to be understood as discontinuing their +movement at the circumference of the imaginary glass sphere, when no +second force, of more than an imaginary character, appears, to account +for the discontinuance? + +I reply that the objection, in this case, actually does arise out of "an +unwarranted assumption"--on the part of the objector--the assumption of a +principle, in Dynamics, at an epoch when _no_ "principles," in +_anything_, exist:--I use the word "principle," of course, in the +objector's understanding of the word. + +"In the beginning" we can admit--indeed we can comprehend--but one _First +Cause_--the truly ultimate _Principle_--the Volition of God. The primary +_act_--that of Irradiation from Unity--must have been independent of all +that which the world now calls "principle"--because all that we so +designate is but a consequence of the reaction of that primary act:--I +say "_primary_" act; for the creation of the absolute material particle +is more properly to be regarded as a _conception_ than as an "_act_" in +the ordinary meaning of the term. Thus, we must regard the primary act +as an act for the establishment of what we now call "principles." But +this primary act itself is to be considered as _continuous Volition_. +The Thought of God is to be understood as originating the Diffusion--as +proceeding with it--as regulating it--and, finally, as being withdrawn +from it upon its completion. _Then_ commences Reaction, and through +Reaction, "Principle," as we employ the word. It will be advisable, +however, to limit the application of this word to the two _immediate_ +results of the discontinuance of the Divine Volition--that is, to the two +agents, _Attraction_ and _Repulsion_. Every other Natural agent depends, +either more or less immediately, upon these two, and therefore would be +more conveniently designated as _sub_-principle. + +It may be objected, thirdly, that, in general, the peculiar mode of +distribution which I have suggested for the atoms, is "an hypothesis and +nothing more." + +Now, I am aware that the word hypothesis is a ponderous sledge-hammer, +grasped immediately, if not lifted, by all very diminutive thinkers, +upon the first appearance of any proposition wearing, in any particular, +the garb of _a theory_. But "hypothesis" cannot be wielded _here_ to any +good purpose, even by those who succeed in lifting it--little men or +great. + +I maintain, first, that _only_ in the mode described is it conceivable +that Matter could have been diffused so as to fulfil at once the +conditions of irradiation and of generally equable distribution. I +maintain, secondly, that these conditions themselves have been imposed +upon me, as necessities, in a train of ratiocination _as rigorously +logical as that which establishes any demonstration in Euclid_; and I +maintain, thirdly, that even if the charge of "hypothesis" were as fully +sustained as it is, in fact, unsustained and untenable, still the +validity and indisputability of my result would not, even in the +slightest particular, be disturbed. + +To explain:--The Newtonian Gravity--a law of Nature--a law whose existence +as such no one out of Bedlam questions--a law whose admission as such +enables us to account for nine-tenths of the Universal phaenomena--a law +which, merely because it does so enable us to account for these +phaenomena, we are perfectly willing, without reference to any other +considerations, to admit, and cannot help admitting, as a law--a law, +nevertheless, of which neither the principle nor the _modus operandi_ of +the principle, has ever yet been traced by the human analysis--a law, in +short, which, neither in its detail nor in its generality, has been +found susceptible of explanation _at all_--is at length seen to be at +every point thoroughly explicable, provided only we yield our assent +to----what? To an hypothesis? Why _if_ an hypothesis--if the merest +hypothesis--if an hypothesis for whose assumption--as in the case of that +_pure_ hypothesis the Newtonian law itself--no shadow of _a priori_ +reason could be assigned--if an hypothesis, even so absolute as all this +implies, would enable us to perceive a principle for the Newtonian +law--would enable us to understand as satisfied, conditions so +miraculously--so ineffably complex and seemingly irreconcileable as those +involved in the relations of which Gravity tells us,--what rational being +_could_ so expose his fatuity as to call even this absolute hypothesis +an hypothesis any longer--unless, indeed, he were to persist in so +calling it, with the understanding that he did so, simply for the sake +of consistency _in words_? + +But what is the true state of our present case? What is _the fact_? Not +only that it is _not_ an hypothesis which we are required _to adopt_, +in order to admit the principle at issue explained, but that it _is_ a +logical conclusion which we are requested _not_ to adopt if we can avoid +it--which we are simply invited to _deny if we can_:--a conclusion of so +accurate a logicality that to dispute it would be the effort--to doubt +its validity beyond our power:--a conclusion from which we see no mode of +escape, turn as we will; a result which confronts us either at the end +of an _in_ductive journey from the phaenomena of the very Law discussed, +or at the close of a _de_ductive career from the most rigorously simple +of all conceivable assumptions--_the assumption, in a word, of Simplicity +itself_. + +And if here, for the mere sake of cavilling, it be urged, that although +my starting-point is, as I assert, the assumption of absolute +Simplicity, yet Simplicity, considered merely in itself, is no axiom; +and that only deductions from axioms are indisputable--it is thus that I +reply:-- + +Every other science than Logic is the science of certain concrete +relations. Arithmetic, for example, is the science of the relations of +number--Geometry, of the relations of form--Mathematics in general, of the +relations of quantity in general--of whatever can be increased or +diminished. Logic, however, is the science of Relation in the +abstract--of absolute Relation--of Relation considered solely in itself. +An axiom in any particular science other than Logic is, thus, merely a +proposition announcing certain concrete relations which seem to be too +obvious for dispute--as when we say, for instance, that the whole is +greater than its part:--and, thus again, the principle of the _Logical_ +axiom--in other words, of an axiom in the abstract--is, simply, +_obviousness of relation_. Now, it is clear, not only that what is +obvious to one mind may not be obvious to another, but that what is +obvious to one mind at one epoch, may be anything but obvious, at +another epoch, to the same mind. It is clear, moreover, that what, +to-day, is obvious even to the majority of mankind, or to the majority +of the best intellects of mankind, may to-morrow be, to either majority, +more or less obvious, or in no respect obvious at all. It is seen, then, +that the _axiomatic principle_ itself is susceptible of variation, and +of course that axioms are susceptible of similar change. Being mutable, +the "truths" which grow out of them are necessarily mutable too; or, in +other words, are never to be positively depended upon as truths at +all--since Truth and Immutability are one. + +It will now be readily understood that no axiomatic idea--no idea founded +in the fluctuating principle, obviousness of relation--can possibly be so +secure--so reliable a basis for any structure erected by the Reason, as +_that_ idea--(whatever it is, wherever we can find it, or _if_ it be +practicable to find it anywhere)--which is _ir_relative altogether--which +not only presents to the understanding _no obviousness_ of relation, +either greater or less, to be considered, but subjects the intellect, +not in the slightest degree, to the necessity of even looking at _any +relation at all_. If such an idea be not what we too heedlessly term "an +axiom," it is at least preferable, as a Logical basis, to any axiom ever +propounded, or to all imaginable axioms combined:--and such, precisely, +is the idea with which my deductive process, so thoroughly corroborated +by induction, commences. My _particle proper_ is but _absolute +Irrelation_. To sum up what has been here advanced:--As a starting point +I have taken it for granted, simply, that the Beginning had nothing +behind it or before it--that it was a Beginning in fact--that it was a +beginning and nothing different from a beginning--in short that this +Beginning was----_that which it was_. If this be a "mere assumption" then +a "mere assumption" let it be. + +To conclude this branch of the subject:--I am fully warranted in +announcing that _the Law which we have been in the habit of calling +Gravity exists on account of Matter's having been irradiated, at its +origin, atomically, into a limited[4] sphere of Space, from one, +individual, unconditional, irrelative, and absolute Particle Proper, by +the sole process in which it was possible to satisfy, at the same time, +the two conditions, irradiation, and generally-equable distribution +throughout the sphere--that is to say, by a force varying in direct +proportion with the squares of the distances between the irradiated +atoms, respectively, and the Particular centre of Irradiation_. + + [4] Limited sphere--A sphere is _necessarily_ limited. I prefer + tautology to a chance of misconception. + +I have already given my reasons for presuming Matter to have been +diffused by a determinate rather than by a continuous or infinitely +continued force. Supposing a continuous force, we should be unable, in +the first place, to comprehend a reaction at all; and we should be +required, in the second place, to entertain the impossible conception of +an infinite extension of Matter. Not to dwell upon the impossibility of +the conception, the infinite extension of Matter is an idea which, if +not positively disproved, is at least not in any respect warranted by +telescopic observation of the stars--a point to be explained more fully +hereafter; and this empirical reason for believing in the original +finity of Matter is unempirically confirmed. For example:--Admitting, for +the moment, the possibility of understanding Space _filled_ with the +irradiated atoms--that is to say, admitting, as well as we can, for +argument's sake, that the succession of the irradiated atoms had +absolutely _no end_--then it is abundantly clear that, even when the +Volition of God had been withdrawn from them, and thus the tendency to +return into Unity permitted (abstractly) to be satisfied, this +permission would have been nugatory and invalid--practically valueless +and of no effect whatever. No Reaction could have taken place; no +movement toward Unity could have been made; no Law of Gravity could have +obtained. + +To explain:--Grant the _abstract_ tendency of any one atom to any one +other as the inevitable result of diffusion from the normal Unity:--or, +what is the same thing, admit any given atom as _proposing_ to move in +any given direction--it is clear that, since there is an _infinity_ of +atoms on all sides of the atom proposing to move, it never can actually +move toward the satisfaction of its tendency in the direction given, on +account of a precisely equal and counterbalancing tendency in the +direction diametrically opposite. In other words, exactly as many +tendencies to Unity are behind the hesitating atom as before it; for it +is a mere sotticism to say that one infinite line is longer or shorter +than another infinite line, or that one infinite number is greater or +less than another number that is infinite. Thus the atom in question +must remain stationary forever. Under the impossible circumstances which +we have been merely endeavoring to conceive for argument's sake, there +could have been no aggregation of Matter--no stars--no worlds--nothing but +a perpetually atomic and inconsequential Universe. In fact, view it as +we will, the whole idea of unlimited Matter is not only untenable, but +impossible and preposterous. + +With the understanding of a _sphere_ of atoms, however, we perceive, at +once, a _satisfiable_ tendency to union. The general result of the +tendency each to each, being a tendency of all to the centre, the +_general_ process of condensation, or approximation, commences +immediately, by a common and simultaneous movement, on withdrawal of the +Divine Volition; the _individual_ approximations, or coalescences--_not_ +coealitions--of atom with atom, being subject to almost infinite +variations of time, degree, and condition, on account of the excessive +multiplicity of relation, arising from the differences of form assumed +as characterizing the atoms at the moment of their quitting the Particle +Proper; as well as from the subsequent particular inequidistance, each +from each. + +What I wish to impress upon the reader is the certainty of there +arising, at once, (on withdrawal of the diffusive force, or Divine +Volition,) out of the condition of the atoms as described, at +innumerable points throughout the Universal sphere, innumerable +agglomerations, characterized by innumerable specific differences of +form, size, essential nature, and distance each from each. The +development of Repulsion (Electricity) must have commenced, of course, +with the very earliest particular efforts at Unity, and must have +proceeded constantly in the ratio of Coalescence--that is to say, _in +that of Condensation_, or, again, of Heterogeneity. + +Thus the two Principles Proper, _Attraction_ and _Repulsion_--the +Material and the Spiritual--accompany each other, in the strictest +fellowship, forever. Thus _The Body and The Soul walk hand in hand_. + +If now, in fancy, we select _any one_ of the agglomerations considered +as in their primary stages throughout the Universal sphere, and suppose +this incipient agglomeration to be taking place at that point where the +centre of our Sun exists--or rather where it _did_ exist originally; for +the Sun is perpetually shifting his position--we shall find ourselves +met, and borne onward for a time at least, by the most magnificent of +theories--by the Nebular Cosmogony of Laplace:--although "Cosmogony" is +far too comprehensive a term for what he really discusses--which is the +constitution of our solar system alone--of one among the myriad of +similar systems which make up the Universe Proper--that Universal +sphere--that all-inclusive and absolute _Kosmos_ which forms the subject +of my present Discourse. + +Confining himself to an _obviously limited_ region--that of our solar +system with its comparatively immediate vicinity--and _merely_ +assuming--that is to say, assuming without any basis whatever, either +deductive or inductive--_much_ of what I have been just endeavoring to +place upon a more stable basis than assumption; assuming, for example, +matter as diffused (without pretending to account for the diffusion) +throughout, and somewhat beyond, the space occupied by our +system--diffused in a state of heterogeneous nebulosity and obedient to +that omniprevalent law of Gravity at whose principle he ventured to make +no guess;--assuming all this (which is quite true, although he had no +logical right to its assumption) Laplace has shown, dynamically and +mathematically, that the results in such case necessarily ensuing, are +those and those alone which we find manifested in the actually existing +condition of the system itself. + +To explain:--Let us conceive _that_ particular agglomeration of which we +have just spoken--the one at the point designated by our Sun's centre--to +have so far proceeded that a vast quantity of nebulous matter has here +assumed a roughly globular form; its centre being, of course, coincident +with what is now, or rather was originally, the centre of our Sun; and +its periphery extending out beyond the orbit of Neptune, the most remote +of our planets:--in other words, let us suppose the diameter of this +rough sphere to be some 6000 millions of miles. For ages, this mass of +matter has been undergoing condensation, until at length it has become +reduced into the bulk we imagine; having proceeded gradually, of course, +from its atomic and imperceptible state, into what we understand of +visible, palpable, or otherwise appreciable nebulosity. + +Now, the condition of this mass implies a rotation about an imaginary +axis--a rotation which, commencing with the absolute incipiency of the +aggregation, has been ever since acquiring velocity. The very first two +atoms which met, approaching each other from points not diametrically +opposite, would, in rushing partially past each other, form a nucleus +for the rotary movement described. How this would increase in velocity, +is readily seen. The two atoms are joined by others:--an aggregation is +formed. The mass continues to rotate while condensing. But any atom at +the circumference has, of course, a more rapid motion than one nearer +the centre. The outer atom, however, with its superior velocity, +approaches the centre; carrying this superior velocity with it as it +goes. Thus every atom, proceeding inwardly, and finally attaching itself +to the condensed centre, adds something to the original velocity of that +centre--that is to say, increases the rotary movement of the mass. + +Let us now suppose this mass so far condensed that it occupies +_precisely_ the space circumscribed by the orbit of Neptune, and that +the velocity with which the surface of the mass moves, in the general +rotation, is precisely that velocity with which Neptune now revolves +about the Sun. At this epoch, then, we are to understand that the +constantly increasing centrifugal force, having gotten the better of the +non-increasing centripetal, loosened and separated the exterior and +least condensed stratum, or a few of the exterior and least condensed +strata, at the equator of the sphere, where the tangential velocity +predominated; so that these strata formed about the main body an +independent ring encircling the equatorial regions:--just as the exterior +portion thrown off, by excessive velocity of rotation, from a +grindstone, would form a ring about the grindstone, but for the solidity +of the superficial material: were this caoutchouc, or anything similar +in consistency, precisely the phaenomenon I describe would be presented. + +The ring thus whirled from the nebulous mass, _revolved_, of course, +_as_ a separate ring, with just that velocity with which, while the +surface of the mass, it _rotated_. In the meantime, condensation still +proceeding, the interval between the discharged ring and the main body +continued to increase, until the former was left at a vast distance from +the latter. + +Now, admitting the ring to have possessed, by some seemingly accidental +arrangement of its heterogeneous materials, a constitution nearly +uniform, then this ring, _as_ such, would never have ceased revolving +about its primary; but, as might have been anticipated, there appears to +have been enough irregularity in the disposition of the materials, to +make them cluster about centres of superior solidity; and thus the +annular form was destroyed.[5] No doubt, the band was soon broken up +into several portions, and one of these portions, predominating in mass, +absorbed the others into itself; the whole settling, spherically, into a +planet. That this latter, _as_ a planet, continued the revolutionary +movement which characterized it while a ring, is sufficiently clear; and +that it took upon itself also, an additional movement in its new +condition of sphere, is readily explained. The ring being understood as +yet unbroken, we see that its exterior, while the whole revolves about +the parent body, moves more rapidly than its interior. When the rupture +occurred, then, some portion in each fragment must have been moving +with greater velocity than the others. The superior movement prevailing, +must have whirled each fragment round--that is to say, have caused it to +rotate; and the direction of the rotation must, of course, have been the +direction of the revolution whence it arose. _All_ the fragments having +become subject to the rotation described, must, in coalescing, have +imparted it to the one planet constituted by their coalescence.--This +planet was Neptune. Its material continuing to undergo condensation, and +the centrifugal force generated in its rotation getting, at length, the +better of the centripetal, as before in the case of the parent orb, a +ring was whirled also from the equatorial surface of this planet: this +ring, having been ununiform in its constitution, was broken up, and its +several fragments, being absorbed by the most massive, were collectively +spherified into a moon. Subsequently, the operation was repeated, and a +second moon was the result. We thus account for the planet Neptune, with +the two satellites which accompany him. + + [5] Laplace assumed his nebulosity heterogeneous, merely that + he might be thus enabled to account for the breaking up of the + rings; for had the nebulosity been homogeneous, they would not + have broken. I reach the same result--heterogeneity of the + secondary masses immediately resulting from the atoms--purely + from an _a priori_ consideration of their general + design--_Relation_. + +In throwing off a ring from its equator, the Sun re-established that +equilibrium between its centripetal and centrifugal forces which had +been disturbed in the process of condensation; but, as this condensation +still proceeded, the equilibrium was again immediately disturbed, +through the increase of rotation. By the time the mass had so far shrunk +that it occupied a spherical space just that circumscribed by the orbit +of Uranus, we are to understand that the centrifugal force had so far +obtained the ascendency that new relief was needed: a second equatorial +band was, consequently, thrown off, which, proving ununiform, was +broken up, as before in the case of Neptune; the fragments settling into +the planet Uranus; the velocity of whose actual revolution about the Sun +indicates, of course, the rotary speed of that Sun's equatorial surface +at the moment of the separation. Uranus, adopting a rotation from the +collective rotations of the fragments composing it, as previously +explained, now threw off ring after ring; each of which, becoming broken +up, settled into a moon:--three moons, at different epochs, having been +formed, in this manner, by the rupture and general spherification of as +many distinct ununiform rings. + +By the time the Sun had shrunk until it occupied a space just that +circumscribed by the orbit of Saturn, the balance, we are to suppose, +between its centripetal and centrifugal forces had again become so far +disturbed, through increase of rotary velocity, the result of +condensation, that a third effort at equilibrium became necessary; and +an annular band was therefore whirled off as twice before; which, on +rupture through ununiformity, became consolidated into the planet +Saturn. This latter threw off, in the first place, seven uniform bands, +which, on rupture, were spherified respectively into as many moons; but, +subsequently, it appears to have discharged, at three distinct but not +very distant epochs, three rings whose equability of constitution was, +by apparent accident, so considerable as to present no occasion for +their rupture; thus they continue to revolve as rings. I use the phrase +"_apparent_ accident;" for of accident in the ordinary sense there was, +of course, nothing:--the term is properly applied only to the result of +indistinguishable or not immediately traceable _law_. + +Shrinking still farther, until it occupied just the space circumscribed +by the orbit of Jupiter, the Sun now found need of farther effort to +restore the counterbalance of its two forces, continually disarranged in +the still continued increase of rotation. Jupiter, accordingly, was now +thrown off; passing from the annular to the planetary condition; and, on +attaining this latter, threw off in its turn, at four different epochs, +four rings, which finally resolved themselves into so many moons. + +Still shrinking, until its sphere occupied just the space defined by the +orbit of the Asteroids, the Sun now discarded a ring which appears to +have had _eight_ centres of superior solidity, and, on breaking up, to +have separated into eight fragments no one of which so far predominated +in mass as to absorb the others. All therefore, as distinct although +comparatively small planets, proceeded to revolve in orbits whose +distances, each from each, may be considered as in some degree the +measure of the force which drove them asunder:--all the orbits, +nevertheless, being so closely coincident as to admit of our calling +them _one_, in view of the other planetary orbits. + +Continuing to shrink, the Sun, on becoming so small as just to fill the +orbit of Mars, now discharged this planet--of course by the process +repeatedly described. Having no moon, however, Mars could have thrown +off no ring. In fact, an epoch had now arrived in the career of the +parent body, the centre of the system. The _de_crease of its nebulosity, +which is the _in_crease of its density, and which again is the +_de_crease of its condensation, out of which latter arose the constant +disturbance of equilibrium--must, by this period, have attained a point +at which the efforts for restoration would have been more and more +ineffectual just in proportion as they were less frequently needed. Thus +the processes of which we have been speaking would everywhere show signs +of exhaustion--in the planets, first, and secondly, in the original mass. +We must not fall into the error of supposing the decrease of interval +observed among the planets as we approach the Sun, to be in any respect +indicative of an increase of frequency in the periods at which they were +discarded. Exactly the converse is to be understood. The longest +interval of time must have occurred between the discharges of the two +interior; the shortest, between those of the two exterior, planets. The +decrease of the interval of space is, nevertheless, the measure of the +density, and thus inversely of the condensation, of the Sun, throughout +the processes detailed. + +Having shrunk, however, so far as to fill only the orbit of our Earth, +the parent sphere whirled from itself still one other body--the Earth--in +a condition so nebulous as to admit of this body's discarding, in its +turn, yet another, which is our Moon;--but here terminated the lunar +formations. + +Finally, subsiding to the orbits first of Venus and then of Mercury, the +Sun discarded these two interior planets; neither of which has given +birth to any moon. + +Thus from his original bulk--or, to speak more accurately, from the +condition in which we first considered him--from a partially spherified +nebular mass, _certainly_ much more than 5,600 millions of miles in +diameter--the great central orb and origin of our solar-planetary-lunar +system, has gradually descended, by condensation, in obedience to the +law of Gravity, to a globe only 882,000 miles in diameter; but it by no +means follows, either that its condensation is yet complete, or that it +may not still possess the capacity of whirling from itself another +planet. + +I have here given--in outline of course, but still with all the detail +necessary for distinctness--a view of the Nebular Theory as its author +himself conceived it. From whatever point we regard it, we shall find it +_beautifully true_. It is by far too beautiful, indeed, _not_ to possess +Truth as its essentiality--and here I am very profoundly serious in what +I say. In the revolution of the satellites of Uranus, there does appear +something seemingly inconsistent with the assumptions of Laplace; but +that _one_ inconsistency can invalidate a theory constructed from a +million of intricate consistencies, is a fancy fit only for the +fantastic. In prophecying, confidently, that the apparent anomaly to +which I refer, will, sooner or later, be found one of the strongest +possible corroborations of the general hypothesis, I pretend to no +especial spirit of divination. It is a matter which the only difficulty +seems _not_ to foresee.[6] + + [6] I am prepared to show that the anomalous revolution of the + satellites of Uranus is a simply perspective anomaly arising + from the inclination of the axis of the planet. + +The bodies whirled off in the processes described, would exchange, it +has been seen, the superficial _rotation_ of the orbs whence they +originated, for a _revolution_ of equal velocity about these orbs as +distant centres; and the revolution thus engendered must proceed, so +long as the centripetal force, or that with which the discarded body +gravitates toward its parent, is neither greater nor less than that by +which it was discarded; that is, than the centrifugal, or, far more +properly, than the tangential, velocity. From the unity, however, of the +origin of these two forces, we might have expected to find them as they +are found--the one accurately counterbalancing the other. It has been +shown, indeed, that the act of whirling-off is, in every case, merely an +act for the preservation of the counterbalance. + +After referring, however, the centripetal force to the omniprevalent law +of Gravity, it has been the fashion with astronomical treatises, to seek +beyond the limits of mere Nature--that is to say, of _Secondary_ Cause--a +solution of the phaenomenon of tangential velocity. This latter they +attribute directly to a _First_ Cause--to God. The force which carries a +stellar body around its primary they assert to have originated in an +impulse given immediately by the finger--this is the childish phraseology +employed--by the finger of Deity itself. In this view, the planets, fully +formed, are conceived to have been hurled from the Divine hand, to a +position in the vicinity of the suns, with an impetus mathematically +adapted to the masses, or attractive capacities, of the suns themselves. +An idea so grossly unphilosophical, although so supinely adopted, could +have arisen only from the difficulty of otherwise accounting for the +absolutely accurate adaptation, each to each, of two forces so seemingly +independent, one of the other, as are the gravitating and tangential. +But it should be remembered that, for a long time, the coincidence +between the moon's rotation and her sidereal revolution--two matters +seemingly far more independent than those now considered--was looked +upon as positively miraculous; and there was a strong disposition, even +among astronomers, to attribute the marvel to the direct and continual +agency of God--who, in this case, it was said, had found it necessary to +interpose, specially, among his general laws, a set of subsidiary +regulations, for the purpose of forever concealing from mortal eyes the +glories, or perhaps the horrors, of the other side of the Moon--of that +mysterious hemisphere which has always avoided, and must perpetually +avoid, the telescopic scrutiny of mankind. The advance of Science, +however, soon demonstrated--what to the philosophical instinct needed +_no_ demonstration--that the one movement is but a portion--something +more, even, than a consequence--of the other. + +For my part, I have no patience with fantasies at once so timorous, so +idle, and so awkward. They belong to the veriest _cowardice_ of thought. +That Nature and the God of Nature are distinct, no thinking being can +long doubt. By the former we imply merely the laws of the latter. But +with the very idea of God, omnipotent, omniscient, we entertain, also, +the idea of _the infallibility_ of his laws. With Him there being +neither Past nor Future--with Him all being _Now_--do we not insult him in +supposing his laws so contrived as not to provide for every possible +contingency?--or, rather, what idea _can_ we have of _any_ possible +contingency, except that it is at once a result and a manifestation of +his laws? He who, divesting himself of prejudice, shall have the rare +courage to think absolutely for himself, cannot fail to arrive, in the +end, at the condensation of _laws_ into _Law_--cannot fail of reaching +the conclusion that _each law of Nature is dependent at all points upon +all other laws_, and that all are but consequences of one primary +exercise of the Divine Volition. Such is the principle of the Cosmogony +which, with all necessary deference, I here venture to suggest and to +maintain. + +In this view, it will be seen that, dismissing as frivolous, and even +impious, the fancy of the tangential force having been imparted to the +planets immediately by "the finger of God," I consider this force as +originating in the rotation of the stars:--this rotation as brought about +by the in-rushing of the primary atoms, towards their respective centres +of aggregation:--this in-rushing as the consequence of the law of +Gravity:--this law as but the mode in which is necessarily manifested the +tendency of the atoms to return into imparticularity:--this tendency to +return as but the inevitable reaction of the first and most sublime of +Acts--that act by which a God, self-existing and alone existing, became +all things at once, through dint of his volition, while all things were +thus constituted a portion of God. + +The radical assumptions of this Discourse suggest to me, and in fact +imply, certain important _modifications_ of the Nebular Theory as given +by Laplace. The efforts of the repulsive power I have considered as made +for the purpose of preventing contact among the atoms, and thus as made +in the ratio of the approach to contact--that is to say, in the ratio of +condensation.[7] In other words, _Electricity_, with its involute +phaenomena, heat, light and magnetism, is to be understood as proceeding +as condensation proceeds, and, of course, inversely as density proceeds, +or the _cessation to condense_. Thus the Sun, in the process of its +aggregation, must soon, in developing repulsion, have become excessively +heated--perhaps incandescent: and we can perceive how the operation of +discarding its rings must have been materially assisted by the slight +incrustation of its surface consequent on cooling. Any common experiment +shows us how readily a crust of the character suggested, is separated, +through heterogeneity, from the interior mass. But, on every successive +rejection of the crust, the new surface would appear incandescent as +before; and the period at which it would again become so far encrusted +as to be readily loosened and discharged, may well be imagined as +exactly coincident with that at which a new effort would be needed, by +the whole mass, to restore the equilibrium of its two forces, +disarranged through condensation. In other words:--by the time the +electric influence (Repulsion) has prepared the surface for rejection, +we are to understand that the gravitating influence (Attraction) is +precisely ready to reject it. Here, then, as everywhere, _the Body and +the Soul walk hand in hand_. + + [7] See page 70. + +These ideas are empirically confirmed at all points. Since condensation +can never, in any body, be considered as absolutely at an end, we are +warranted in anticipating that, whenever we have an opportunity of +testing the matter, we shall find indications of resident luminosity in +_all_ the stellar bodies--moons and planets as well as suns. That our +Moon is strongly self-luminous, we see at her every total eclipse, when, +if not so, she would disappear. On the dark part of the satellite, too, +during her phases, we often observe flashes like our own Auroras; and +that these latter, with our various other so-called electrical +phaenomena, without reference to any more steady radiance, must give our +Earth a certain appearance of luminosity to an inhabitant of the Moon, +is quite evident. In fact, we should regard all the phaenomena referred +to, as mere manifestations, in different moods and degrees, of the +Earth's feebly-continued condensation. + +If my views are tenable, we should be prepared to find the newer +planets--that is to say, those nearer the Sun--more luminous than those +older and more remote:--and the extreme brilliancy of Venus (on whose +dark portions, during her phases, the Auroras are frequently visible) +does not seem to be altogether accounted for by her mere proximity to +the central orb. She is no doubt vividly self-luminous, although less so +than Mercury: while the luminosity of Neptune may be comparatively +nothing. + +Admitting what I have urged, it is clear that, from the moment of the +Sun's discarding a ring, there must be a continuous diminution both of +his heat and light, on account of the continuous encrustation of his +surface; and that a period would arrive--the period immediately previous +to a new discharge--when a _very material_ decrease of both light and +heat, must become apparent. Now, we know that tokens of such changes are +distinctly recognizable. On the Melville islands--to adduce merely one +out of a hundred examples--we find traces of _ultra-tropical_ +vegetation--of plants that never could have flourished without immensely +more light and heat than are at present afforded by our Sun to any +portion of the surface of the Earth. Is such vegetation referable to an +epoch immediately subsequent to the whirling-off of Venus? At this epoch +must have occurred to us our greatest access of solar influence; and, +in fact, this influence must then have attained its maximum:--leaving out +of view, of course, the period when the Earth itself was discarded--the +period of its mere organization. + +Again:--we know that there exist _non-luminous suns_--that is to say, suns +whose existence we determine through the movements of others, but whose +luminosity is not sufficient to impress us. Are these suns invisible +merely on account of the length of time elapsed since their discharge of +a planet? And yet again:--may we not--at least in certain cases--account +for the sudden appearances of suns where none had been previously +suspected, by the hypothesis that, having rolled with encrusted surfaces +throughout the few thousand years of our astronomical history, each of +these suns, in whirling off a new secondary, has at length been enabled +to display the glories of its still incandescent interior?--To the +well-ascertained fact of the proportional increase of heat as we descend +into the Earth, I need of course, do nothing more than refer:--it comes +in the strongest possible corroboration of all that I have said on the +topic now at issue. + +In speaking, not long ago, of the repulsive or electrical influence, I +remarked that "the important phaenomena of vitality, consciousness, and +thought, whether we observe them generally or in detail, seem to proceed +_at least in the ratio of the heterogeneous_."[8] I mentioned, too, that +I would recur to the suggestion:--and this is the proper point at which +to do so. Looking at the matter, first, in detail, we perceive that not +merely the _manifestation_ of vitality, but its importance, consequence, +and elevation of character, keep pace, very closely, with the +heterogeneity, or complexity, of the animal structure. Looking at the +question, now, in its generality, and referring to the first movements +of the atoms towards mass-constitution, we find that heterogeneousness, +brought about directly through condensation, is proportional with it +forever. We thus reach the proposition that _the importance of the +development of the terrestrial vitality proceeds equably with the +terrestrial condensation_. + + [8] Page 36. + +Now this is in precise accordance with what we know of the succession of +animals on the Earth. As it has proceeded in its condensation, superior +and still superior races have appeared. Is it impossible that the +successive geological revolutions which have attended, at least, if not +immediately caused, these successive elevations of vitalic character--is +it improbable that these revolutions have themselves been produced by +the successive planetary discharges from the Sun--in other words, by the +successive variations in the solar influence on the Earth? Were this +idea tenable, we should not be unwarranted in the fancy that the +discharge of yet a new planet, interior to Mercury, may give rise to yet +a new modification of the terrestrial surface--a modification from which +may spring a race both materially and spiritually superior to Man. These +thoughts impress me with all the force of truth--but I throw them out, of +course, merely in their obvious character of suggestion. + +The Nebular Theory of Laplace has lately received far more confirmation +than it needed, at the hands of the philosopher, Compte. These two have +thus together shown--_not_, to be sure, that Matter at any period +actually existed as described, in a state of nebular diffusion, but +that, admitting it so to have existed throughout the space and much +beyond the space now occupied by our solar system, _and to have +commenced a movement towards a centre_--it must gradually have assumed +the various forms and motions which are now seen, in that system, to +obtain. A demonstration such as this--a dynamical and mathematical +demonstration, as far as demonstration can be--unquestionable and +unquestioned--unless, indeed, by that unprofitable and disreputable +tribe, the professional questioners--the mere madmen who deny the +Newtonian law of Gravity on which the results of the French +mathematicians are based--a demonstration, I say, such as this, would to +most intellects be conclusive--and I confess that it is so to mine--of the +validity of the nebular hypothesis upon which the demonstration depends. + +That the demonstration does not _prove_ the hypothesis, according to the +common understanding of the word "proof," I admit, of course. To show +that certain existing results--that certain established facts--may be, +even mathematically, accounted for by the assumption of a certain +hypothesis, is by no means to establish the hypothesis itself. In other +words:--to show that, certain data being given, a certain existing result +might, or even _must_, have ensued, will fail to prove that this result +_did_ ensue, _from the data_, until such time as it shall be also shown +that there are, _and can be_, no other data from which the result in +question might _equally_ have ensued. But, in the case now discussed, +although all must admit the deficiency of what we are in the habit of +terming "proof," still there are many intellects, and those of the +loftiest order, to which _no_ proof could bring one iota of additional +_conviction_. Without going into details which might impinge upon the +Cloud-Land of Metaphysics, I may as well here observe that the force of +conviction, in cases such as this, will always, with the right-thinking, +be proportional to the amount of _complexity_ intervening between the +hypothesis and the result. To be less abstract:--The greatness of the +complexity found existing among cosmical conditions, by rendering great +in the same proportion the difficulty of accounting for all these +conditions _at once_, strengthens, also in the same proportion, our +faith in that hypothesis which does, in such manner, satisfactorily +account for them:--and as _no_ complexity can well be conceived greater +than that of the astronomical conditions, so no conviction can be +stronger--to _my_ mind at least--than that with which I am impressed by an +hypothesis that not only reconciles these conditions, with mathematical +accuracy, and reduces them into a consistent and intelligible whole, but +is, at the same time, the _sole_ hypothesis by means of which the human +intellect has been ever enabled to account for them _at all_. + +A most unfounded opinion has become latterly current in gossiping and +even in scientific circles--the opinion that the so-called Nebular +Cosmogony has been overthrown. This fancy has arisen from the report of +late observations made, among what hitherto have been termed the +"nebulae," through the large telescope of Cincinnati, and the +world-renowned instrument of Lord Rosse. Certain spots in the firmament +which presented, even to the most powerful of the old telescopes, the +appearance of nebulosity, or haze, had been regarded for a long time as +confirming the theory of Laplace. They were looked upon as stars in that +very process of condensation which I have been attempting to describe. +Thus it was supposed that we "had ocular evidence"--an evidence, by the +way, which has always been found very questionable--of the truth of the +hypothesis; and, although certain telescopic improvements, every now and +then, enabled us to perceive that a spot, here and there, which we had +been classing among the nebulae, was, in fact, but a cluster of stars +deriving its nebular character only from its immensity of distance--still +it was thought that no doubt could exist as to the actual nebulosity of +numerous other masses, the strong-holds of the nebulists, bidding +defiance to every effort at segregation. Of these latter the most +interesting was the great "nebulae" in the constellation Orion:--but this, +with innumerable other mis-called "nebulae," when viewed through the +magnificent modern telescopes, has become resolved into a simple +collection of stars. Now this fact has been very generally understood as +conclusive against the Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace; and, on +announcement of the discoveries in question, the most enthusiastic +defender and most eloquent popularizer of the theory, Dr. Nichol, went +so far as to "admit the necessity of abandoning" an idea which had +formed the material of his most praiseworthy book.[9] + + [9] "_Views of the Architecture of the Heavens._" A letter, + purporting to be from Dr. Nichol to a friend in America, went + the rounds of our newspapers, about two years ago, I think, + admitting "the necessity" to which I refer. In a subsequent + Lecture, however, Dr. N. appears in some manner to have gotten + the better of the necessity, and does not quite _renounce_ the + theory, although he seems to wish that he could sneer at it as + "a purely hypothetical one." What else was the Law of Gravity + before the Maskelyne experiments? and who questioned the Law of + Gravity, even then? + +Many of my readers will no doubt be inclined to say that the result of +these new investigations _has_ at least a strong _tendency_ to overthrow +the hypothesis; while some of them, more thoughtful, will suggest that, +although the theory is by no means disproved through the segregation of +the particular "nebulae," alluded to, still a _failure_ to segregate +them, with such telescopes, might well have been understood as a +triumphant _corroboration_ of the theory:--and this latter class will be +surprised, perhaps, to hear me say that even with _them_ I disagree. If +the propositions of this Discourse have been comprehended, it will be +seen that, in my view, a failure to segregate the "nebulae" would have +tended to the refutation, rather than to the confirmation, of the +Nebular Hypothesis. + +Let me explain:--The Newtonian Law of Gravity we may, of course, assume +as demonstrated. This law, it will be remembered, I have referred to the +reaction of the first Divine Act--to the reaction of an exercise of the +Divine Volition temporarily overcoming a difficulty. This difficulty is +that of forcing the normal into the abnormal--of impelling that whose +originality, and therefore whose rightful condition, was _One_, to take +upon itself the wrongful condition of _Many_. It is only by conceiving +this difficulty as _temporarily_ overcome, that we can comprehend a +reaction. There could have been no reaction had the act been infinitely +continued. So long as the act _lasted_, no reaction, of course, could +commence; in other words, no _gravitation_ could take place--for we have +considered the one as but the manifestation of the other. But +gravitation _has_ taken place; therefore the act of Creation has ceased: +and gravitation has long ago taken place; therefore the act of Creation +has long ago ceased. We can no more expect, then, to observe _the +primary processes_ of Creation; and to these primary processes the +condition of nebulosity has already been explained to belong. + +Through what we know of the propagation of light, we have direct proof +that the more remote of the stars have existed, under the forms in which +we now see them, for an inconceivable number of years. So far back _at +least_, then, as the period when these stars underwent condensation, +must have been the epoch at which the mass-constitutive processes began. +That we may conceive these processes, then, as still going on in the +case of certain "nebulae," while in all other cases we find them +thoroughly at an end, we are forced into assumptions for which we have +really _no_ basis whatever--we have to thrust in, again, upon the +revolting Reason, the blasphemous idea of special interposition--we have +to suppose that, in the particular instances of these "nebulae," an +unerring God found it necessary to introduce certain supplementary +regulations--certain improvements of the general law--certain retouchings +and emendations, in a word, which had the effect of deferring the +completion of these individual stars for centuries of centuries beyond +the aera during which all the other stellar bodies had time, not only to +be fully constituted, but to grow hoary with an unspeakable old age. + +Of course, it will be immediately objected that since the light by which +we recognize the nebulae now, must be merely that which left their +surfaces a vast number of years ago, the processes at present observed, +or supposed to be observed, are, in fact, _not_ processes now actually +going on, but the phantoms of processes completed long in the Past--just +as I maintain all these mass-constitutive processes _must_ have been. + +To this I reply that neither is the now-observed condition of the +condensed stars their actual condition, but a condition completed long +in the Past; so that my argument drawn from the _relative_ condition of +the stars and the "nebulae," is in no manner disturbed. Moreover, those +who maintain the existence of nebulae, do _not_ refer the nebulosity to +extreme distance; they declare it a real and not merely a perspective +nebulosity. That we may conceive, indeed, a nebular mass as visible at +all, we must conceive it as _very near us_ in comparison with the +condensed stars brought into view by the modern telescopes. In +maintaining the appearances in question, then, to be really nebulous, we +maintain their comparative vicinity to our point of view. Thus, their +condition, as we see them now, must be referred to an epoch _far less +remote_ than that to which we may refer the now-observed condition of at +least the majority of the stars.--In a word, should Astronomy ever +demonstrate a "nebula," in the sense at present intended, I should +consider the Nebular Cosmogony--_not_, indeed, as corroborated by the +demonstration--but as thereby irretrievably overthrown. + +By way, however, of rendering unto Caesar _no more_ than the things that +are Caesar's, let me here remark that the assumption of the hypothesis +which led him to so glorious a result, seems to have been suggested to +Laplace in great measure by a misconception--by the very misconception of +which we have just been speaking--by the generally prevalent +misunderstanding of the character of the nebulae, so mis-named. These he +supposed to be, in reality, what their designation implies. The fact is, +this great man had, very properly, an inferior faith in his own merely +_perceptive_ powers. In respect, therefore, to the actual existence of +nebulae--an existence so confidently maintained by his telescopic +contemporaries--he depended less upon what he saw than upon what he +heard. + +It will be seen that the only valid objections to his theory, are those +made to its hypothesis _as_ such--to what suggested it--not to what it +suggests; to its propositions rather than to its results. His most +unwarranted assumption was that of giving the atoms a movement towards a +centre, in the very face of his evident understanding that these atoms, +in unlimited succession, extended throughout the Universal space. I have +already shown that, under such circumstances, there could have occurred +no movement at all; and Laplace, consequently, assumed one on no more +philosophical ground than that something of the kind was necessary for +the establishment of what he intended to establish. + +His original idea seems to have been a compound of the true Epicurean +atoms with the false nebulae of his contemporaries; and thus his theory +presents us with the singular anomaly of absolute truth deduced, as a +mathematical result, from a hybrid datum of ancient imagination +intertangled with modern inacumen. Laplace's real strength lay, in fact, +in an almost miraculous mathematical instinct:--on this he relied; and in +no instance did it fail or deceive him:--in the case of the Nebular +Cosmogony, it led him, blindfolded, through a labyrinth of Error, into +one of the most luminous and stupendous temples of Truth. + +Let us now fancy, for the moment, that the ring first thrown off by the +Sun--that is to say, the ring whose breaking-up constituted Neptune--did +not, in fact, break up until the throwing-off of the ring out of which +Uranus arose; that this latter ring, again, remained perfect until the +discharge of that out of which sprang Saturn; that this latter, again, +remained entire until the discharge of that from which originated +Jupiter--and so on. Let us imagine, in a word, that no dissolution +occurred among the rings until the final rejection of that which gave +birth to Mercury. We thus paint to the eye of the mind a series of +coeexistent concentric circles; and looking as well at _them_ as at the +processes by which, according to Laplace's hypothesis, they were +constructed, we perceive at once a very singular analogy with the atomic +strata and the process of the original irradiation as I have described +it. Is it impossible that, on measuring the _forces_, respectively, by +which each successive planetary circle was thrown off--that is to say, on +measuring the successive excesses of rotation over gravitation which +occasioned the successive discharges--we should find the analogy in +question more decidedly confirmed? _Is it improbable that we should +discover these forces to have varied--as in the original +radiation--proportionally to the squares of the distances?_ + +Our solar system, consisting, in chief, of one sun, with sixteen planets +certainly, and possibly a few more, revolving about it at various +distances, and attended by seventeen moons assuredly, but _very_ +probably by several others--is now to be considered as _an example_ of +the innumerable agglomerations which proceeded to take place throughout +the Universal Sphere of atoms on withdrawal of the Divine Volition. I +mean to say that our solar system is to be understood as affording a +_generic instance_ of these agglomerations, or, more correctly, of the +ulterior conditions at which they arrived. If we keep our attention +fixed on the idea of _the utmost possible Relation_ as the Omnipotent +design, and on the precautions taken to accomplish it through difference +of form, among the original atoms, and particular inequidistance, we +shall find it impossible to suppose for a moment that even any two of +the incipient agglomerations reached precisely the same result in the +end. We shall rather be inclined to think that _no two_ stellar bodies +in the Universe--whether suns, planets or moons--are particularly, while +_all_ are generally, similar. Still less, then, can we imagine any two +_assemblages_ of such bodies--any two "systems"--as having more than a +general resemblance.[10] Our telescopes, at this point, thoroughly +confirm our deductions. Taking our own solar system, then, as merely a +loose or general type of all, we have so far proceeded in our subject as +to survey the Universe under the aspect of a spherical space, throughout +which, dispersed with merely general equability, exist a number of but +generally similar _systems_. + + [10] It is not _impossible_ that some unlooked-for optical + improvement may disclose to us, among innumerable varieties of + systems, a luminous sun, encircled by luminous and non-luminous + rings, within and without and between which, revolve luminous + and non-luminous planets, attended by moons having moons--and + even these latter again having moons. + +Let us now, expanding our conceptions, look upon each of these systems +as in itself an atom; which in fact it is, when we consider it as but +one of the countless myriads of systems which constitute the Universe. +Regarding all, then, as but colossal atoms, each with the same +ineradicable tendency to Unity which characterizes the actual atoms of +which it consists--we enter at once upon a new order of aggregations. +The smaller systems, in the vicinity of a larger one, would, inevitably, +be drawn into still closer vicinity. A thousand would assemble here; a +million there--perhaps here, again, even a billion--leaving, thus, +immeasurable vacancies in space. And if now, it be demanded why, in the +case of these systems--of these merely Titanic atoms--I speak, simply, +of an "assemblage," and not, as in the case of the actual atoms, of a +more or less consolidated agglomeration:--if it be asked, for instance, +why I do not carry what I suggest to its legitimate conclusion, and +describe, at once, these assemblages of system-atoms as rushing to +consolidation in spheres--as each becoming condensed into one +magnificent sun--my reply is that [Greek: mellonta tauta]--I am but +pausing, for a moment, on the awful threshold of _the Future_. For the +present, calling these assemblages "clusters," we see them in the +incipient stages of their consolidation. Their _absolute_ consolidation +is _to come_. + +We have now reached a point from which we behold the Universe as a +spherical space, interspersed, _unequably_, with _clusters_. It will be +noticed that I here prefer the adverb "unequably" to the phrase "with a +merely general equability," employed before. It is evident, in fact, +that the equability of distribution will diminish in the ratio of the +agglomerative processes--that is to say, as the things distributed +diminish in number. Thus the increase of _in_-equability--an increase +which must continue until, sooner or later, an epoch will arrive at +which the largest agglomeration will absorb all the others--should be +viewed as, simply, a corroborative indication of the _tendency to One_. + +And here, at length, it seems proper to inquire whether the ascertained +_facts_ of Astronomy confirm the general arrangement which I have thus, +deductively, assigned to the Heavens. Thoroughly, they _do_. Telescopic +observation, guided by the laws of perspective, enables us to understand +that the perceptible Universe exists as _a cluster of clusters, +irregularly disposed_. + +The "clusters" of which this Universal "_cluster of clusters_" consists, +are merely what we have been in the practice of designating +"nebulae"--and, of these "nebulae," _one_ is of paramount interest to +mankind. I allude to the Galaxy, or Milky Way. This interests us, first +and most obviously, on account of its great superiority in apparent +size, not only to any one other cluster in the firmament, but to all the +other clusters taken together. The largest of these latter occupies a +mere point, comparatively, and is distinctly seen only with the aid of a +telescope. The Galaxy sweeps throughout the Heaven and is brilliantly +visible to the naked eye. But it interests man chiefly, although less +immediately, on account of its being his home; the home of the Earth on +which he exists; the home of the Sun about which this Earth revolves; +the home of that "system" of orbs of which the Sun is the centre and +primary--the Earth one of sixteen secondaries, or planets--the Moon one of +seventeen tertiaries, or satellites. The Galaxy, let me repeat, is but +one of the _clusters_ which I have been describing--but one of the +mis-called "nebulae" revealed to us--by the telescope alone, sometimes--as +faint hazy spots in various quarters of the sky. We have no reason to +suppose the Milky Way _really_ more extensive than the least of these +"nebulae." Its vast superiority in size is but an apparent superiority +arising from our position in regard to it--that is to say, from our +position in its midst. However strange the assertion may at first appear +to those unversed in Astronomy, still the astronomer himself has no +hesitation in asserting that we are _in the midst_ of that inconceivable +host of stars--of suns--of systems--which constitute the Galaxy. Moreover, +not only have _we_--not only has _our_ Sun a right to claim the Galaxy as +its own especial cluster, but, with slight reservation, it may be said +that all the distinctly visible stars of the firmament--all the stars +Visible to the naked eye--have equally a right to claim it as _their_ +own. + +There has been a great deal of misconception in respect to the _shape_ +of the Galaxy; which, in nearly all our astronomical treatises, is said +to resemble that of a capital Y. The cluster in question has, in +reality, a certain general--_very_ general resemblance to the planet +Saturn, with its encompassing triple ring. Instead of the solid orb of +that planet, however, we must picture to ourselves a lenticular +star-island, or collection of stars; our Sun lying excentrically--near +the shore of the island--on that side of it which is nearest the +constellation of the Cross and farthest from that of Cassiopeia. The +surrounding ring, where it approaches our position, has in it a +longitudinal _gash_, which does, in fact, cause _the ring, in our +vicinity_, to assume, loosely, the appearance of a capital Y. + +We must not fall into the error, however, of conceiving the somewhat +indefinite girdle as at all _remote_, comparatively speaking, from the +also indefinite lenticular cluster which it surrounds; and thus, for +mere purpose of explanation, we may speak of our Sun as actually +situated at that point of the Y where its three component lines unite; +and, conceiving this letter to be of a certain solidity--of a certain +thickness, very trivial in comparison with its length--we may even speak +of our position as _in the middle_ of this thickness. Fancying ourselves +thus placed, we shall no longer find difficulty in accounting for the +phaenomena presented--which are perspective altogether. When we look +upward or downward--that is to say, when we cast our eyes in the +direction of the letter's _thickness_--we look through fewer stars than +when we cast them in the direction of its _length_, or _along_ either of +the three component lines. Of course, in the former case, the stars +appear scattered--in the latter, crowded.--To reverse this explanation:--An +inhabitant of the Earth, when looking, as we commonly express ourselves, +_at_ the Galaxy, is then beholding it in some of the directions of its +length--is looking _along_ the lines of the Y--but when, looking out into +the general Heaven, he turns his eyes _from_ the Galaxy, he is then +surveying it in the direction of the letter's thickness; and on this +account the stars seem to him scattered; while, in fact, they are as +close together, on an average, as in the mass of the cluster. _No_ +consideration could be better adapted to convey an idea of this +cluster's stupendous extent. + +If, with a telescope of high space-penetrating power, we carefully +inspect the firmament, we shall become aware of _a belt of clusters_--of +what we have hitherto called "nebulae"--a _band_, of varying breadth, +stretching from horizon to horizon, at right angles to the general +course of the Milky Way. This band is the ultimate _cluster of +clusters_. This belt is _The Universe_. Our Galaxy is but one, and +perhaps one of the most inconsiderable, of the clusters which go to the +constitution of this ultimate, Universal _belt_ or _band_. The +appearance of this cluster of clusters, to our eyes, _as_ a belt or +band, is altogether a perspective phaenomenon of the same character as +that which causes us to behold our own individual and roughly-spherical +cluster, the Galaxy, under guise also of a belt, traversing the Heavens +at right angles to the Universal one. The shape of the all-inclusive +cluster is, of course _generally_, that of each individual cluster which +it includes. Just as the scattered stars which, on looking _from_ the +Galaxy, we see in the general sky, are, in fact, but a portion of that +Galaxy itself, and as closely intermingled with it as any of the +telescopic points in what seems the densest portion of its mass--so are +the scattered "nebulae" which, on casting our eyes _from_ the Universal +_belt_, we perceive at all points of the firmament--so, I say, are these +scattered "nebulae" to be understood as only perspectively scattered, and +as part and parcel of the one supreme and Universal _sphere_. + +No astronomical fallacy is more untenable, and none has been more +pertinaciously adhered to, than that of the absolute _illimitation_ of +the Universe of Stars. The reasons for limitation, as I have already +assigned them, _a priori_, seem to me unanswerable; but, not to speak of +these, _observation_ assures us that there is, in numerous directions +around us, certainly, if not in all, a positive limit--or, at the very +least, affords us no basis whatever for thinking otherwise. Were the +succession of stars endless, then the background of the sky would +present us an uniform luminosity, like that displayed by the +Galaxy--_since there could be absolutely no point, in all that +background, at which would not exist a star._ The only mode, therefore, +in which, under such a state of affairs, we could comprehend the _voids_ +which our telescopes find in innumerable directions, would be by +supposing the distance of the invisible background so immense that no +ray from it has yet been able to reach us at all. That this _may_ be so, +who shall venture to deny? I maintain, simply, that we have not even the +shadow of a reason for believing that it _is_ so. + +When speaking of the vulgar propensity to regard all bodies on the Earth +as tending merely to the Earth's centre, I observed that, "with certain +exceptions to be specified hereafter, every body on the Earth tended not +only to the Earth's centre, but in every conceivable direction +besides."[11] The "exceptions" refer to those frequent gaps in the +Heavens, where our utmost scrutiny can detect not only no stellar +bodies, but no indications of their existence:--where yawning chasms, +blacker than Erebus, seem to afford us glimpses, through the boundary +walls of the Universe of Stars, into the illimitable Universe of +Vacancy, beyond. Now as any body, existing on the Earth, chances to +pass, either through its own movement or the Earth's, into a line with +any one of these voids, or cosmical abysses, it clearly is no longer +attracted _in the direction of that void_, and for the moment, +consequently, is "heavier" than at any period, either after or before. +Independently of the consideration of these voids, however, and looking +only at the generally unequable distribution of the stars, we see that +the absolute tendency of bodies on the Earth to the Earth's centre, is +in a state of perpetual variation. + + [11] Page 62. + +We comprehend, then, the insulation of our Universe. We perceive the +isolation of _that_--of _all_ that which we grasp with the senses. We +know that there exists one _cluster of clusters_--a collection around +which, on all sides, extend the immeasurable wildernesses of a Space _to +all human perception_ untenanted. But _because_ upon the confines of +this Universe of Stars we are compelled to pause, through want of +farther evidence from the senses, is it right to conclude that, in fact, +there _is_ no material point beyond that which we have thus been +permitted to attain? Have we, or have we not, an analogical right to the +inference that this perceptible Universe--that this cluster of +clusters--is but one of _a series_ of clusters of clusters, the rest of +which are invisible through distance--through the diffusion of their +light being so excessive, ere it reaches us, as not to produce upon our +retinas a light-impression--or from there being no such emanation as +light at all, in these unspeakably distant worlds--or, lastly, from the +mere interval being so vast, that the electric tidings of their presence +in Space, have not yet--through the lapsing myriads of years--been enabled +to traverse that interval? + +Have we any right to inferences--have we any ground whatever for visions +such as these? If we have a right to them in _any_ degree, we have a +right to their infinite extension. + +The human brain has obviously a leaning to the "_Infinite_," and fondles +the phantom of the idea. It seems to long with a passionate fervor for +this impossible conception, with the hope of intellectually believing it +when conceived. What is general among the whole race of Man, of course +no individual of that race can be warranted in considering abnormal; +nevertheless, there _may_ be a class of superior intelligences, to whom +the human bias alluded to may wear all the character of monomania. + +My question, however, remains unanswered:--Have we any right to infer--let +us say, rather, to imagine--an interminable succession of the "clusters +of clusters," or of "Universes" more or less similar? + +I reply that the "right," in a case such as this, depends absolutely +upon the hardihood of that imagination which ventures to claim the +right. Let me declare, only, that, as an individual, I myself feel +impelled to the _fancy_--without daring to call it more--that there _does_ +exist a _limitless_ succession of Universes, more or less similar to +that of which we have cognizance--to that of which _alone_ we shall ever +have cognizance--at the very least until the return of our own particular +Universe into Unity. _If_ such clusters of clusters exist, however--_and +they do_--it is abundantly clear that, having had no part in our origin, +they have no portion in our laws. They neither attract us, nor we them. +Their material--their spirit is not ours--is not that which obtains in any +part of our Universe. They could not impress our senses or our souls. +Among them and us--considering all, for the moment, collectively--there +are no influences in common. Each exists, apart and independently, _in +the bosom of its proper and particular God_. + +In the conduct of this Discourse, I am aiming less at physical than at +metaphysical order. The clearness with which even material phaenomena are +presented to the understanding, depends very little, I have long since +learned to perceive, upon a merely natural, and almost altogether upon a +moral, arrangement. If then I seem to step somewhat too discursively +from point to point of my topic, let me suggest that I do so in the hope +of thus the better keeping unbroken that chain of _graduated impression_ +by which alone the intellect of Man can expect to encompass the +grandeurs of which I speak, and, in their majestic totality, to +comprehend them. + +So far, our attention has been directed, almost exclusively, to a +general and relative grouping of the stellar bodies in space. Of +specification there has been little; and whatever ideas of _quantity_ +have been conveyed--that is to say, of number, magnitude, and +distance--have been conveyed incidentally and by way of preparation for +more definitive conceptions. These latter let us now attempt to +entertain. + +Our solar system, as has been already mentioned, consists, in chief, of +one sun and sixteen planets certainly, but in all probability a few +others, revolving around it as a centre, and attended by seventeen moons +of which we know, with possibly several more of which as yet we know +nothing. These various bodies are not true spheres, but oblate +spheroids--spheres flattened at the poles of the imaginary axes about +which they rotate:--the flattening being a consequence of the rotation. +Neither is the Sun absolutely the centre of the system; for this Sun +itself, with all the planets, revolves about a perpetually shifting +point of space, which is the system's general centre of gravity. Neither +are we to consider the paths through which these different spheroids +move--the moons about the planets, the planets about the Sun, or the Sun +about the common centre--as circles in an accurate sense. They are, in +fact, _ellipses--one of the foci being the point about which the +revolution is made_. An ellipse is a curve, returning into itself, one +of whose diameters is longer than the other. In the longer diameter are +two points, equidistant from the middle of the line, and so situated +otherwise that if, from each of them a straight line be drawn to any one +point of the curve, the two lines, taken together, will be equal to the +longer diameter itself. Now let us conceive such an ellipse. At one of +the points mentioned, which are the _foci_, let us fasten an orange. By +an elastic thread let us connect this orange with a pea; and let us +place this latter on the circumference of the ellipse. Let us now move +the pea continuously around the orange--keeping always on the +circumference of the ellipse. The elastic thread, which, of course, +varies in length as we move the pea, will form what in geometry is +called a _radius vector_. Now, if the orange be understood as the Sun, +and the pea as a planet revolving about it, then the revolution should +be made at such a rate--with a velocity so varying--that the _radius +vector_ may pass over _equal areas of space in equal times_. The +progress of the pea _should be_--in other words, the progress of the +planet _is_, of course,--slow in proportion to its distance from the +Sun--swift in proportion to its proximity. Those planets, moreover, move +the more slowly which are the farther from the Sun; _the squares of +their periods of revolution having the same proportion to each other, as +have to each other the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun_. + +The wonderfully complex laws of revolution here described, however, are +not to be understood as obtaining in our system alone. They _everywhere_ +prevail where Attraction prevails. They control _the Universe_. Every +shining speck in the firmament is, no doubt, a luminous sun, resembling +our own, at least in its general features, and having in attendance upon +it a greater or less number of planets, greater or less, whose still +lingering luminosity is not sufficient to render them visible to us at +so vast a distance, but which, nevertheless, revolve, moon-attended, +about their starry centres, in obedience to the principles just +detailed--in obedience to the three omniprevalent laws of revolution--the +three immortal laws _guessed_ by the imaginative Kepler, and but +subsequently demonstrated and accounted for by the patient and +mathematical Newton. Among a tribe of philosophers who pride themselves +excessively upon matter-of-fact, it is far too fashionable to sneer at +all speculation under the comprehensive _sobriquet_, "guess-work." The +point to be considered is, _who_ guesses. In guessing with Plato, we +spend our time to better purpose, now and then, than in hearkening to a +demonstration by Alcmaeon. + +In many works on Astronomy I find it distinctly stated that the laws of +Kepler are _the basis_ of the great principle, Gravitation. This idea +must have arisen from the fact that the suggestion of these laws by +Kepler, and his proving them _a posteriori_ to have an actual existence, +led Newton to account for them by the hypothesis of Gravitation, and, +finally, to demonstrate them _a priori_, as necessary consequences of +the hypothetical principle. Thus so far from the laws of Kepler being +the basis of Gravity, Gravity is the basis of these laws--as it is, +indeed, of all the laws of the material Universe which are not referable +to Repulsion alone. + +The mean distance of the Earth from the Moon--that is to say, from the +heavenly body in our closest vicinity--is 237,000 miles. Mercury, the +planet nearest the Sun, is distant from him 37 millions of miles. Venus, +the next, revolves at a distance of 68 millions:--the Earth, which comes +next, at a distance of 95 millions:--Mars, then, at a distance of 144 +millions. Now come the eight Asteroids (Ceres, Juno, Vesta, Pallas, +Astraea, Flora, Iris, and Hebe) at an average distance of about 250 +millions. Then we have Jupiter, distant 490 millions; then Saturn, 900 +millions; then Uranus, 19 hundred millions; finally Neptune, lately +discovered, and revolving at a distance, say of 28 hundred millions. +Leaving Neptune out of the account--of which as yet we know little +accurately and which is, possibly, one of a system of Asteroids--it will +be seen that, within certain limits, there exists an _order of interval_ +among the planets. Speaking loosely, we may say that each outer planet +is twice as far from the Sun as is the next inner one. May not the +_order_ here mentioned--_may not the law of Bode--be deduced from +consideration of the analogy suggested by me as having place between the +solar discharge of rings and the mode of the atomic irradiation_? + +The numbers hurriedly mentioned in this summary of distance, it is folly +to attempt comprehending, unless in the light of abstract arithmetical +facts. They are not practically tangible ones. They convey no precise +ideas. I have stated that Neptune, the planet farthest from the Sun, +revolves about him at a distance of 28 hundred millions of miles. So far +good:--I have stated a mathematical fact; and, without comprehending it +in the least, we may put it to use--mathematically. But in mentioning, +even, that the Moon revolves about the Earth at the comparatively +trifling distance of 237,000 miles, I entertained no expectation of +giving any one to understand--to know--to feel--how far from the Earth the +Moon actually _is_. 237,000 _miles_! There are, perhaps, few of my +readers who have not crossed the Atlantic ocean; yet how many of them +have a distinct idea of even the 3,000 miles intervening between shore +and shore? I doubt, indeed, whether the man lives who can force into his +brain the most remote conception of the interval between one milestone +and its next neighbor upon the turnpike. We are in some measure aided, +however, in our consideration of distance, by combining this +consideration with the kindred one of velocity. Sound passes through +1100 feet of space in a second of time. Now were it possible for an +inhabitant of the Earth to see the flash of a cannon discharged in the +Moon, and to hear the report, he would have to wait, after perceiving +the former, more than 13 entire days and nights before getting any +intimation of the latter. + +However feeble be the impression, even thus conveyed, of the Moon's real +distance from the Earth, it will, nevertheless, effect a good object in +enabling us more clearly to see the futility of attempting to grasp such +intervals as that of the 28 hundred millions of miles between our Sun +and Neptune; or even that of the 95 millions between the Sun and the +Earth we inhabit. A cannon-ball, flying at the greatest velocity with +which such a ball has ever been known to fly, could not traverse the +latter interval in less than 20 years; while for the former it would +require 590. + +Our Moon's real diameter is 2160 miles; yet she is comparatively so +trifling an object that it would take nearly 50 such orbs to compose one +as great as the Earth. + +The diameter of our own globe is 7912 miles--but from the enunciation of +these numbers what positive idea do we derive? + +If we ascend an ordinary mountain and look around us from its summit, we +behold a landscape stretching, say 40 miles, in every direction; forming +a circle 250 miles in circumference; and including an area of 5000 +square miles. The extent of such a prospect, on account of the +_successiveness_ with which its portions necessarily present themselves +to view, can be only very feebly and very partially appreciated:--yet the +entire panorama would comprehend no more than one 40,000th part of the +mere _surface_ of our globe. Were this panorama, then, to be succeeded, +after the lapse of an hour, by another of equal extent; this again by a +third, after the lapse of another hour; this again by a fourth after +lapse of another hour--and so on, until the scenery of the whole Earth +were exhausted; and were we to be engaged in examining these various +panoramas for twelve hours of every day; we should nevertheless, be 9 +years and 48 days in completing the general survey. + +But if the mere surface of the Earth eludes the grasp of the +imagination, what are we to think of its cubical contents? It embraces a +mass of matter equal in weight to at least 2 sextillions, 200 +quintillions of tons. Let us suppose it in a state of quiescence; and +now let us endeavor to conceive a mechanical force sufficient to set it +in motion! Not the strength of all the myriads of beings whom we may +conclude to inhabit the planetary worlds of our system--not the combined +physical strength of _all_ these beings--even admitting all to be more +powerful than man--would avail to stir the ponderous mass _a single inch_ +from its position. + +What are we to understand, then, of the force, which under similar +circumstances, would be required to move the _largest_ of our planets, +Jupiter? This is 86,000 miles in diameter, and would include within its +periphery more than a thousand orbs of the magnitude of our own. Yet +this stupendous body is actually flying around the Sun at the rate of +29,000 miles an hour--that is to say, with a velocity 40 times greater +than that of a cannon-ball! The thought of such a phaenomenon cannot well +be said to _startle_ the mind:--it palsies and appals it. Not +unfrequently we task our imagination in picturing the capacities of an +angel. Let us fancy such a being at a distance of some hundred miles +from Jupiter--a close eye-witness of this planet as it speeds on its +annual revolution. Now _can_ we, I demand, fashion for ourselves any +conception so distinct of this ideal being's spiritual exaltation, as +_that_ involved in the supposition that, even by this immeasurable mass +of matter, whirled immediately before his eyes, with a velocity so +unutterable, he--an angel--angelic though he be--is not at once struck into +nothingness and overwhelmed? + +At this point, however, it seems proper to suggest that, in fact, we +have been speaking of comparative trifles. Our Sun, the central and +controlling orb of the system to which Jupiter belongs, is not only +greater than Jupiter, but greater by far than all the planets of the +system taken together. This fact is an essential condition, indeed, of +the stability of the system itself. The diameter of Jupiter has been +mentioned:--it is 86,000 miles:--that of the Sun is 882,000 miles. An +inhabitant of the latter, travelling 90 miles a day, would be more than +80 years in going round a great circle of its circumference. It occupies +a cubical space of 681 quadrillions, 472 trillions of miles. The Moon, +as has been stated, revolves about the Earth at a distance of 237,000 +miles--in an orbit, consequently, of nearly a million and a half. Now, +were the Sun placed upon the Earth, centre over centre, the body of the +former would extend, in every direction, not only to the line of the +Moon's orbit, but beyond it, a distance of 200,000 miles. + +And here, once again, let me suggest that, in fact, we have _still_ been +speaking of comparative trifles. The distance of the planet Neptune from +the Sun has been stated:--it is 28 hundred millions of miles; the +circumference of its orbit, therefore, is about 17 billions. Let this be +borne in mind while we glance at some one of the brightest stars. +Between this and the star of _our_ system, (the Sun,) there is a gulf of +space, to convey any idea of which we should need the tongue of an +archangel. From _our_ system, then, and from _our_ Sun, or star, the +star at which we suppose ourselves glancing is a thing altogether +apart:--still, for the moment, let us imagine it placed upon our Sun, +centre over centre, as we just now imagined this Sun itself placed upon +the Earth. Let us now conceive the particular star we have in mind, +extending, in every direction, beyond the orbit of Mercury--of Venus--of +the Earth:--still _on_, beyond the orbit of Mars--of Jupiter--of +Uranus--until, finally, we fancy it filling the circle--17 _billions of +miles in circumference_--which is described by the revolution of +Leverrier's planet. When we have conceived all this, we shall have +entertained no extravagant conception. There is the very best reason for +believing that many of the stars are even far larger than the one we +have imagined. I mean to say that we have the very best _empirical_ +basis for such belief:--and, in looking back at the original, atomic +arrangements for _diversity_, which have been assumed as a part of the +Divine plan in the constitution of the Universe, we shall be enabled +easily to understand, and to credit, the existence of even far vaster +disproportions in stellar size than any to which I have hitherto +alluded. The largest orbs, of course, we must expect to find rolling +through the widest vacancies of Space. + +I remarked, just now, that to convey an idea of the interval between our +Sun and any one of the other stars, we should require the eloquence of +an archangel. In so saying, I should not be accused of exaggeration; +for, in simple truth, these are topics on which it is scarcely possible +to exaggerate. But let us bring the matter more distinctly before the +eye of the mind. + +In the first place, we may get a general, _relative_ conception of the +interval referred to, by comparing it with the inter-planetary spaces. +If, for example, we suppose the Earth, which is, in reality, 95 millions +of miles from the Sun, to be only _one foot_ from that luminary; then +Neptune would be 40 feet distant; _and the star Alpha Lyrae, at the very +least_, 159. + +Now I presume that, in the termination of my last sentence, few of my +readers have noticed anything especially objectionable--particularly +wrong. I said that the distance of the Earth from the Sun being taken at +_one foot_, the distance of Neptune would be 40 feet, and that of Alpha +Lyrae, 159. The proportion between one foot and 159 has appeared, +perhaps, to convey a sufficiently definite impression of the proportion +between the two intervals--that of the Earth from the Sun and that of +Alpha Lyrae from the same luminary. But my account of the matter should, +in reality, have run thus:--The distance of the Earth from the Sun being +taken at one foot, the distance of Neptune would be 40 feet, and that of +Alpha Lyrae, 159----_miles_:--that is to say, I had assigned to Alpha Lyrae, +in my first statement of the case, only the 5280_th_ _part_ of that +distance which is the _least distance possible_ at which it can actually +lie. + +To proceed:--However distant a mere _planet_ is, yet when we look at it +through a telescope, we see it under a certain form--of a certain +appreciable size. Now I have already hinted at the probable bulk of many +of the stars; nevertheless, when we view any one of them, even through +the most powerful telescope, it is found to present us with _no form_, +and consequently with _no magnitude_ whatever. We see it as a point and +nothing more. + +Again;--Let us suppose ourselves walking, at night, on a highway. In a +field on one side of the road, is a line of tall objects, say trees, the +figures of which are distinctly defined against the background of the +sky. This line of objects extends at right angles to the road, and from +the road to the horizon. Now, as we proceed along the road, we see these +objects changing their positions, respectively, in relation to a certain +fixed point in that portion of the firmament which forms the background +of the view. Let us suppose this fixed point--sufficiently fixed for our +purpose--to be the rising moon. We become aware, at once, that while the +tree nearest us so far alters its position in respect to the moon, as to +seem flying behind us, the tree in the extreme distance has scarcely +changed at all its relative position with the satellite. We then go on +to perceive that the farther the objects are from us, the less they +alter their positions; and the converse. Then we begin, unwittingly, to +estimate the distances of individual trees by the degrees in which they +evince the relative alteration. Finally, we come to understand how it +might be possible to ascertain the actual distance of any given tree in +the line, by using the amount of relative alteration as a basis in a +simple geometrical problem. Now this relative alteration is what we call +"parallax;" and by parallax we calculate the distances of the heavenly +bodies. Applying the principle to the trees in question, we should, of +course, be very much at a loss to comprehend the distance of _that_ +tree, which, however far we proceeded along the road, should evince _no_ +parallax at all. This, in the case described, is a thing impossible; but +impossible only because all distances on our Earth are trivial +indeed:--in comparison with the vast cosmical quantities, we may speak of +them as absolutely nothing. + +Now, let us suppose the star Alpha Lyrae directly overhead; and let us +imagine that, instead of standing on the Earth, we stand at one end of a +straight road stretching through Space to a distance equalling the +diameter of the Earth's orbit--that is to say, to a distance of 190 +_millions of miles_. Having observed, by means of the most delicate +micrometrical instruments, the exact position of the star, let us now +pass along this inconceivable road, until we reach its other extremity. +Now, once again, let us look at the star. It is _precisely_ where we +left it. Our instruments, however delicate, assure us that its relative +position is absolutely--is identically the same as at the commencement of +our unutterable journey. _No_ parallax--none whatever--has been found. + +The fact is, that, in regard to the distance of the fixed stars--of any +one of the myriads of suns glistening on the farther side of that awful +chasm which separates our system from its brothers in the cluster to +which it belongs--astronomical science, until very lately, could speak +only with a negative certainty. Assuming the brightest as the nearest, +we could say, even of _them_, only that there is a certain +incomprehensible distance on the _hither_ side of which they cannot +be:--how far they are beyond it we had in no case been able to ascertain. +We perceived, for example, that Alpha Lyrae cannot be nearer to us than +19 trillions, 200 billions of miles; but, for all we knew, and indeed +for all we now know, it may be distant from us the square, or the cube, +or any other power of the number mentioned. By dint, however, of +wonderfully minute and cautious observations, continued, with novel +instruments, for many laborious years, _Bessel_, not long ago deceased, +has lately succeeded in determining the distance of six or seven stars; +among others, that of the star numbered 61 in the constellation of the +Swan. The distance in this latter instance ascertained, is 670,000 times +that of the Sun; which last it will be remembered, is 95 millions of +miles. The star 61 Cygni, then, is nearly 64 trillions of miles from +us--or more than three times the distance assigned, _as the least +possible_, for Alpha Lyrae. + +In attempting to appreciate this interval by the aid of any +considerations of _velocity_, as we did in endeavoring to estimate the +distance of the moon, we must leave out of sight, altogether, such +nothings as the speed of a cannon-ball, or of sound. Light, however, +according to the latest calculations of Struve, proceeds at the rate of +167,000 miles in a second. Thought itself cannot pass through this +interval more speedily--if, indeed, thought can traverse it at all. Yet, +in coming from 61 Cygni to us, even at this inconceivable rate, light +occupies more than _ten years_; and, consequently, were the star this +moment blotted out from the Universe, still, _for ten years_, would it +continue to sparkle on, undimmed in its paradoxical glory. + +Keeping now in mind whatever feeble conception we may have attained of +the interval between our Sun and 61 Cygni, let us remember that this +interval, however unutterably vast, we are permitted to consider as but +the _average_ interval among the countless host of stars composing that +cluster, or "nebula," to which our system, as well as that of 61 Cygni, +belongs. I have, in fact, stated the case with great moderation:--we have +excellent reason for believing 61 Cygni to be one of the _nearest_ +stars, and thus for concluding, at least for the present, that its +distance from us is _less_ than the average distance between star and +star in the magnificent cluster of the Milky Way. + +And here, once again and finally, it seems proper to suggest that even +as yet we have been speaking of trifles. Ceasing to wonder at the space +between star and star in our own or in any particular cluster, let us +rather turn our thoughts to the intervals between cluster and cluster, +in the all comprehensive cluster of the Universe. + +I have already said that light proceeds at the rate of 167,000 miles in +a second--that is, about 10 millions of miles in a minute, or about 600 +millions of miles in an hour:--yet so far removed from us are some of +the "nebulae" that even light, speeding with this velocity, could not +and does not reach us, from those mysterious regions, in less than 3 +_millions of years_. This calculation, moreover, is made by the elder +Herschell, and in reference merely to those comparatively proximate +clusters within the scope of his own telescope. There _are_ "nebulae," +however, which, through the magical tube of Lord Rosse, are this instant +whispering in our ears the secrets of _a million of ages_ by-gone. In a +word, the events which we behold now--at this moment--in those worlds--are +the identical events which interested their inhabitants _ten hundred +thousand centuries ago_. In intervals--in distances such as this +suggestion forces upon the _soul_--rather than upon the mind--we find, at +length, a fitting climax to all hitherto frivolous considerations of +_quantity_. + +Our fancies thus occupied with the cosmical distances, let us take the +opportunity of referring to the difficulty which we have so often +experienced, while pursuing _the beaten path_ of astronomical +reflection, _in accounting_ for the immeasurable voids alluded to--in +comprehending why chasms so totally unoccupied and therefore apparently +so needless, have been made to intervene between star and star--between +cluster and cluster--in understanding, to be brief, a sufficient reason +for the Titanic scale, in respect of mere _Space_, on which the Universe +is seen to be constructed. A rational cause for the phaenomenon, I +maintain that Astronomy has palpably failed to assign:--but the +considerations through which, in this Essay, we have proceeded step by +step, enable us clearly and immediately to perceive that _Space and +Duration are one_. That the Universe might _endure_ throughout an aera +at all commensurate with the grandeur of its component material portions +and with the high majesty of its spiritual purposes, it was necessary +that the original atomic diffusion be made to so inconceivable an extent +as to be only not infinite. It was required, in a word, that the stars +should be gathered into visibility from invisible nebulosity--proceed +from nebulosity to consolidation--and so grow grey in giving birth and +death to unspeakably numerous and complex variations of vitalic +development:--it was required that the stars should do all this--should +have time thoroughly to accomplish all these Divine purposes--_during the +period_ in which all things were effecting their return into Unity with +a velocity accumulating in the inverse proportion of the squares of the +distances at which lay the inevitable End. + +Throughout all this we have no difficulty in understanding the absolute +accuracy of the Divine _adaptation_. The density of the stars, +respectively, proceeds, of course, as their condensation diminishes; +condensation and heterogeneity keep pace with each other; through the +latter, which is the index of the former, we estimate the vitalic and +spiritual development. Thus, in the density of the globes, we have the +measure in which their purposes are fulfilled. _As_ density +proceeds--_as_ the divine intentions _are_ accomplished--_as_ less and +still less remains _to be_ accomplished--so--in the same ratio--should we +expect to find an acceleration of _the End_:--and thus the philosophical +mind will easily comprehend that the Divine designs in constituting the +stars, advance _mathematically_ to their fulfilment:--and more; it will +readily give the advance a mathematical expression; it will decide that +this advance is inversely proportional with the squares of the distances +of all created things from the starting-point and goal of their +creation. + +Not only is this Divine adaptation, however, mathematically accurate, +but there is that about it which stamps it _as divine_, in distinction +from that which is merely the work of human constructiveness. I allude +to the complete _mutuality_ of adaptation. For example; in human +constructions a particular cause has a particular effect; a particular +intention brings to pass a particular object; but this is all; we see no +reciprocity. The effect does not re-act upon the cause; the intention +does not change relations with the object. In Divine constructions the +object is either design or object as we choose to regard it--and we may +take at any time a cause for an effect, or the converse--so that we can +never absolutely decide which is which. + +To give an instance:--In polar climates the human frame, to maintain its +animal heat, requires, for combustion in the capillary system, an +abundant supply of highly azotized food, such as train-oil. But +again:--in polar climates nearly the sole food afforded man is the oil of +abundant seals and whales. Now, whether is oil at hand because +imperatively demanded, or the only thing demanded because the only thing +to be obtained? It is impossible to decide. There is an absolute +_reciprocity of adaptation_. + +The pleasure which we derive from any display of human ingenuity is in +the ratio of _the approach_ to this species of reciprocity. In the +construction of _plot_, for example, in fictitious literature, we +should aim at so arranging the incidents that we shall not be able to +determine, of any one of them, whether it depends from any one other or +upholds it. In this sense, of course, _perfection_ of _plot_ is really, +or practically, unattainable--but only because it is a finite +intelligence that constructs. The plots of God are perfect. The Universe +is a plot of God. + +And now we have reached a point at which the intellect is forced, again, +to struggle against its propensity for analogical inference--against its +monomaniac grasping at the infinite. Moons have been seen _revolving_ +about planets; planets about stars; and the poetical instinct of +humanity--its instinct of the symmetrical, if the symmetry be but a +symmetry of surface:--this _instinct_, which the Soul, not only of Man +but of all created beings, took up, in the beginning, from the +_geometrical_ basis of the Universal irradiation--impels us to the fancy +of an endless extension of this system of _cycles_. Closing our eyes +equally to _de_duction and _in_duction, we insist upon imagining a +_revolution_ of all the orbs of the Galaxy about some gigantic globe +which we take to be the central pivot of the whole. Each cluster in the +great cluster of clusters is imagined, of course, to be similarly +supplied and constructed; while, that the "analogy" may be wanting at no +point, we go on to conceive these clusters themselves, again, as +_revolving_ about some still more august sphere;--this latter, still +again, _with_ its encircling clusters, as but one of a yet more +magnificent series of agglomerations, _gyrating_ about yet another orb +central _to them_--some orb still more unspeakably sublime--some orb, let +us rather say, of infinite sublimity endlessly multiplied by the +infinitely sublime. Such are the conditions, continued in perpetuity, +which the voice of what some people term "analogy" calls upon the Fancy +to depict and the Reason to contemplate, if possible, without becoming +dissatisfied with the picture. Such, _in general_, are the interminable +gyrations beyond gyration which we have been instructed by Philosophy to +comprehend and to account for, at least in the best manner we can. Now +and then, however, a philosopher proper--one whose phrenzy takes a very +determinate turn--whose genius, to speak more reverentially, has a +strongly-pronounced washerwomanish bias, doing every thing up by the +dozen--enables us to see _precisely_ that point out of sight, at which +the revolutionary processes in question do, and of right ought to, come +to an end. + +It is hardly worth while, perhaps, even to sneer at the reveries of +Fourrier:--but much has been said, latterly, of the hypothesis of +Maedler--that there exists, in the centre of the Galaxy, a stupendous +globe about which all the systems of the cluster revolve. The _period_ +of our own, indeed, has been stated--117 millions of years. + +That our Sun has a motion in space, independently of its rotation, and +revolution about the system's centre of gravity, has long been +suspected. This motion, granting it to exist, would be manifested +perspectively. The stars in that firmamental region which we were +leaving behind us, would, in a very long series of years, become +crowded; those in the opposite quarter, scattered. Now, by means of +astronomical History, we ascertain, cloudily, that some such phaenomena +have occurred. On this ground it has been declared that our system is +moving to a point in the heavens diametrically opposite the star Zeta +Herculis:--but this inference is, perhaps, the maximum to which we have +any logical right. Maedler, however, has gone so far as to designate a +particular star, Alcyone in the Pleiades, as being at or about the very +spot around which a general _revolution_ is performed. + +Now, since by "analogy" we are led, in the first instance, to these +dreams, it is no more than proper that we should abide by analogy, at +least in some measure, during their development; and that analogy which +suggests the revolution, suggests at the same time a central orb about +which it should be performed:--so far the astronomer was consistent. This +central orb, however, should, dynamically, be greater than all the orbs, +taken together, which surround it. Of these there are about 100 +millions. "Why, then," it was of course demanded, "do we not _see_ this +vast central sun--_at least equal_ in mass to 100 millions of such suns +as ours--why do we not _see_ it--_we_, especially, who occupy the mid +region of the cluster--the very locality _near_ which, at all events, +must be situated this incomparable star?" The reply was ready--"It must +be non-luminous, as are our planets." Here, then, to suit a purpose, +analogy is suddenly let fall. "Not so," it may be said--"we know that +non-luminous suns actually exist." It is true that we have reason at +least for supposing so; but we have certainly no reason whatever for +supposing that the non-luminous suns in question are encircled by +_luminous_ suns, while these again are surrounded by non-luminous +planets:--and it is precisely all this with which Maedler is called upon +to find any thing analogous in the heavens--for it is precisely all this +which he imagines in the case of the Galaxy. Admitting the thing to be +so, we cannot help here picturing to ourselves how sad a puzzle the _why +it is so_ must prove to all _a priori_ philosophers. + +But granting, in the very teeth of analogy and of every thing else, the +non-luminosity of the vast central orb, we may still inquire how this +orb, so enormous, could fail of being rendered visible by the flood of +light thrown upon it from the 100 millions of glorious suns glaring in +all directions about it. Upon the urging of this question, the idea of +an actually solid central sun appears, in some measure, to have been +abandoned; and speculation proceeded to assert that the systems of the +cluster perform their revolutions merely about an immaterial centre of +gravity common to all. Here again then, to suit a purpose, analogy is +let fall. The planets of our system revolve, it is true, about a common +centre of gravity; but they do this in connexion with, and in +consequence of, a material sun whose mass more than counterbalances the +rest of the system. + +The mathematical circle is a curve composed of an infinity of straight +lines. But this idea of the circle--an idea which, in view of all +ordinary geometry, is merely the mathematical, as contradistinguished +from the practical, idea--is, in sober fact, the _practical_ conception +which alone we have any right to entertain in regard to the majestic +circle with which we have to deal, at least in fancy, when we suppose +our system revolving about a point in the centre of the Galaxy. Let the +most vigorous of human imaginations attempt but to take a single step +towards the comprehension of a sweep so ineffable! It would scarcely be +paradoxical to say that a flash of lightning itself, travelling +_forever_ upon the circumference of this unutterable circle, would +still, _forever_, be travelling in a straight line. That the path of our +Sun in such an orbit would, to any human perception, deviate in the +slightest degree from a straight line, even in a million of years, is a +proposition not to be entertained:--yet we are required to believe that a +curvature has become apparent during the brief period of our +astronomical history--during a mere point--during the utter nothingness of +two or three thousand years. + +It may be said that Maedler _has_ really ascertained a curvature in the +direction of our system's now well-established progress through Space. +Admitting, if necessary, this fact to be in reality such, I maintain +that nothing is thereby shown except the reality of this fact--the fact +of a curvature. For its _thorough_ determination, ages will be required; +and, when determined, it will be found indicative of some binary or +other multiple relation between our Sun and some one or more of the +proximate stars. I hazard nothing however, in predicting, that, after +the lapse of many centuries, all efforts at determining the path of our +Sun through Space, will be abandoned as fruitless. This is easily +conceivable when we look at the infinity of perturbation it must +experience, from its perpetually-shifting relations with other orbs, in +the common approach of all to the nucleus of the Galaxy. + +But in examining other "nebulae" than that of the Milky Way--in surveying, +generally, the clusters which overspread the heavens--do we or do we not +find confirmation of Maedler's hypothesis? We do _not_. The forms of the +clusters are exceedingly diverse when casually viewed; but on close +inspection, through powerful telescopes, we recognize the sphere, very +distinctly, as at least the proximate form of all:--their constitution, +in general, being at variance with the idea of revolution about a common +centre. + +"It is difficult," says Sir John Herschell, "to form any conception of +the dynamical state of such systems. On one hand, without a rotary +motion and a centrifugal force, it is hardly possible not to regard them +as in a state of _progressive collapse_. On the other, granting such a +motion and such a force, we find it no less difficult to reconcile their +forms with the rotation of the whole system [meaning cluster] around any +single axis, without which internal collision would appear to be +inevitable." + +Some remarks lately made about the "nebulae" by Dr. Nichol, in taking +quite a different view of the cosmical conditions from any taken in this +Discourse--have a very peculiar applicability to the point now at issue. +He says: + +"When our greatest telescopes are brought to bear upon them, we find +that those which were thought to be irregular, are not so; they approach +nearer to a globe. Here is one that looked oval; but Lord Rosse's +telescope brought it into a circle.... Now there occurs a very +remarkable circumstance in reference to these comparatively sweeping +circular masses of nebulae. We find they are not entirely circular, but +the reverse; and that all around them, on every side, there are volumes +of stars, _stretching out apparently as if they were rushing towards a +great central mass in consequence of the action of some great +power_."[12] + + [12] I must be understood as denying, _especially_, only the + _revolutionary_ portion of Maedler's hypothesis. Of course, if + no great central orb exists _now_ in our cluster, such will + exist hereafter. Whenever existing, it will be merely the + _nucleus_ of the consolidation. + +Were I to describe, in my own words, what must necessarily be the +existing condition of each nebula on the hypothesis that all matter is, +as I suggest, now returning to its original Unity, I should simply be +going over, nearly verbatim, the language here employed by Dr. Nichol, +without the faintest suspicion of that stupendous truth which is the key +to these nebular phaenomena. + +And here let me fortify my position still farther, by the voice of a +greater than Maedler--of one, moreover, to whom all the data of Maedler +have long been familiar things, carefully and thoroughly considered. +Referring to the elaborate calculations of Argelander--the very +researches which form Maedler's basis--_Humboldt_, whose generalizing +powers have never, perhaps been equalled, has the following observation: + +"When we regard the real, proper, or non-perspective motions of the +stars, we find _many groups of them moving in opposite directions_; and +the data as yet in hand render it not necessary, at least, to conceive +that the systems composing the Milky Way, or the clusters, generally, +composing the Universe, are revolving about any particular centre +unknown, whether luminous or non-luminous. It is but Man's longing for a +fundamental First Cause, that impels both his intellect and his fancy +to the adoption of such an hypothesis."[13] + + [13] Betrachtet man die nicht perspectivischen eigenen + Bewegungen der Sterne, so scheinen viele gruppenweise in ihrer + Richtung entgegengesetzt; und die bisher gesammelten Thatsachen + machen es auf's wenigste nicht nothwendig, anzunehmen, dass + alle Theile unserer Sternenschicht oder gar der gesammten + Sterneninseln, welche den Weltraum fuellen, sich um einen + grossen, unbekannten, leuchtenden oder dunkeln Centralkoerper + bewegen. Das Streben nach den letzten und hoechsten + Grundursachen macht freilich die reflectirende Thaetigkeit des + Menschen, wie seine Phantasie, zu einer solchen Annahme + geneigt. + +The phaenomenon here alluded to--that of "many groups moving in opposite +directions"--is quite inexplicable by Maedler's idea; but arises, as a +necessary consequence, from that which forms the basis of this +Discourse. While the _merely general direction_ of each atom--of each +moon, planet, star, or cluster--would, on my hypothesis, be, of course, +absolutely rectilinear; while the _general_ path of all bodies would be +a right line leading to the centre of all; it is clear, nevertheless, +that this general rectilinearity would be compounded of what, with +scarcely any exaggeration, we may term an infinity of particular +curves--an infinity of local deviations from rectilinearity--the result of +continuous differences of relative position among the multitudinous +masses, as each proceeded on its own proper journey to the End. + +I quoted, just now, from Sir John Herschell, the following words, used +in reference to the clusters:--"On one hand, without a rotary motion and +a centrifugal force, it is hardly possible not to regard them as in a +state of _progressive collapse_." The fact is, that, in surveying the +"nebulae" with a telescope of high power, we shall find it quite +impossible, having once conceived this idea of "collapse," not to +gather, at all points, corroboration of the idea. A nucleus is always +apparent, in the direction of which the stars seem to be precipitating +themselves; nor can these nuclei be mistaken for merely perspective +phaenomena:--the clusters are _really_ denser near the centre--sparser in +the regions more remote from it. In a word, we see every thing as we +_should_ see it were a collapse taking place; but, in general, it may be +said of these clusters, that we can fairly entertain, while looking at +them, the idea of _orbitual movement about a centre_, only by admitting +the _possible_ existence, in the distant domains of space, of dynamical +laws with which _we_ are unacquainted. + +On the part of Herschell, however, there is evidently _a reluctance_ to +regard the nebulae as in "a state of progressive collapse." But if +facts--if even appearances justify the supposition of their being in this +state, _why_, it may well be demanded, is he disinclined to admit it? +Simply on account of a prejudice;--merely because the supposition is at +war with a preconceived and utterly baseless notion--that of the +endlessness--that of the eternal stability of the Universe. + +If the propositions of this Discourse are tenable, the "state of +progressive collapse" is _precisely_ that state in which alone we are +warranted in considering All Things; and, with due humility, let me here +confess that, for my part, I am at a loss to conceive how any _other_ +understanding of the existing condition of affairs, could ever have made +its way into the human brain. "The tendency to collapse" and "the +attraction of gravitation" are convertible phrases. In using either, we +speak of the reaction of the First Act. Never was necessity less obvious +than that of supposing Matter imbued with an ineradicable _quality_ +forming part of its material nature--a quality, or instinct, _forever_ +inseparable from it, and by dint of which inalienable principle every +atom is _perpetually_ impelled to seek its fellow-atom. Never was +necessity less obvious than that of entertaining this unphilosophical +idea. Going boldly behind the vulgar thought, we have to conceive, +metaphysically, that the gravitating principle appertains to Matter +_temporarily_--only while diffused--only while existing as Many instead of +as One--appertains to it by virtue of its state of irradiation +alone--appertains, in a word, altogether to its _condition_, and not in +the slightest degree to _itself_. In this view, when the irradiation +shall have returned into its source--when the reaction shall be +completed--the gravitating principle will no longer exist. And, in fact, +astronomers, without at any time reaching the idea here suggested, seem +to have been approximating it, in the assertion that "if there were but +one body in the Universe, it would be impossible to understand how the +principle, Gravity, could obtain:"--that is to say, from a consideration +of Matter as they find it, they reach a conclusion at which I +deductively arrive. That so pregnant a suggestion as the one just quoted +should have been permitted to remain so long unfruitful, is, +nevertheless, a mystery which I find it difficult to fathom. + +It is, perhaps, in no little degree, however, our propensity for the +continuous--for the analogical--in the present case more particularly for +the symmetrical--which has been leading us astray. And, in fact, the +sense of the symmetrical is an instinct which may be depended upon with +an almost blindfold reliance. It is the poetical essence of the +Universe--_of the Universe_ which, in the supremeness of its symmetry, is +but the most sublime of poems. Now symmetry and consistency are +convertible terms:--thus Poetry and Truth are one. A thing is consistent +in the ratio of its truth--true in the ratio of its consistency. _A +perfect consistency, I repeat, can be nothing but an absolute truth._ We +may take it for granted, then, that Man cannot long or widely err, if he +suffer himself to be guided by his poetical, which I have maintained to +be his truthful, in being his symmetrical, instinct. He must have a +care, however, lest, in pursuing too heedlessly the superficial symmetry +of forms and motions, he leave out of sight the really essential +symmetry of the principles which determine and control them. + +That the stellar bodies would finally be merged in one--that, at last, +all would be drawn into the substance of _one stupendous central orb +already existing_--is an idea which, for some time past, seems, vaguely +and indeterminately, to have held possession of the fancy of mankind. It +is an idea, in fact, which belongs to the class of the _excessively +obvious_. It springs, instantly, from a superficial observation of the +cyclic and seemingly _gyrating_, or _vorticial_ movements of those +individual portions of the Universe which come most immediately and most +closely under our observation. There is not, perhaps, a human being, of +ordinary education and of average reflective capacity, to whom, at some +period, the fancy in question has not occurred, as if spontaneously, or +intuitively, and wearing all the character of a very profound and very +original conception. This conception, however, so commonly entertained, +has never, within my knowledge, arisen out of any abstract +considerations. Being, on the contrary, always suggested, as I say, by +the vorticial movements about centres, a reason for it, also,--a _cause_ +for the ingathering of all the orbs into one, _imagined to be already +existing_, was naturally sought in the same direction--among these cyclic +movements themselves. + +Thus it happened that, on announcement of the gradual and perfectly +regular decrease observed in the orbit of Enck's comet, at every +successive revolution about our Sun, astronomers were nearly unanimous +in the opinion that the cause in question was found--that a principle was +discovered sufficient to account, physically, for that final, universal +agglomeration which, I repeat, the analogical, symmetrical or poetical +instinct of Man had predetermined to understand as something more than a +simple hypothesis. + +This cause--this sufficient reason for the final ingathering--was declared +to exist in an exceedingly rare but still material medium pervading +space; which medium, by retarding, in some degree, the progress of the +comet, perpetually weakened its tangential force; thus giving a +predominance to the centripetal; which, of course, drew the comet nearer +and nearer at each revolution, and would eventually precipitate it upon +the Sun. + +All this was strictly logical--admitting the medium or ether; but this +ether was assumed, most illogically, on the ground that no _other_ mode +than the one spoken of could be discovered, of accounting for the +observed decrease in the orbit of the comet:--as if from the fact that we +could _discover_ no other mode of accounting for it, it followed, in any +respect, that no other mode of accounting for it existed. It is clear +that innumerable causes might operate, in combination, to diminish the +orbit, without even a possibility of our ever becoming acquainted with +one of them. In the meantime, it has never been fairly shown, perhaps, +why the retardation occasioned by the skirts of the Sun's atmosphere, +through which the comet passes at perihelion, is not enough to account +for the phaenomenon. That Enck's comet will be absorbed into the Sun, is +probable; that all the comets of the system will be absorbed, is more +than merely possible; but, in such case, the principle of absorption +must be referred to eccentricity of orbit--to the close approximation to +the Sun, of the comets at their perihelia; and is a principle not +affecting, in any degree, the ponderous _spheres_, which are to be +regarded as the true material constituents of the Universe.--Touching +comets, in general, let me here suggest, in passing, that we cannot be +far wrong in looking upon them as the _lightning-flashes of the cosmical +Heaven_. + +The idea of a retarding ether and, through it, of a final agglomeration +of all things, seemed at one time, however, to be confirmed by the +observation of a positive decrease in the orbit of the solid moon. By +reference to eclipses recorded 2500 years ago, it was found that the +velocity of the satellite's revolution _then_ was considerably less than +it is _now_; that on the hypothesis that its motions in its orbit is +uniformly in accordance with Kepler's law, and was accurately determined +_then_--2500 years ago--it is now in advance of the position it _should_ +occupy, by nearly 9000 miles. The increase of velocity proved, of +course, a diminution of orbit; and astronomers were fast yielding to a +belief in an ether, as the sole mode of accounting for the phaenomenon, +when Lagrange came to the rescue. He showed that, owing to the +configurations of the spheroids, the shorter axes of their ellipses are +subject to variation in length; the longer axes being permanent; and +that this variation is continuous and vibratory--so that every orbit is +in a state of transition, either from circle to ellipse, or from ellipse +to circle. In the case of the moon, where the shorter axis is +_de_creasing, the orbit is passing from circle to ellipse and, +consequently, is _de_creasing too; but, after a long series of ages, the +ultimate eccentricity will be attained; then the shorter axis will +proceed to _in_crease, until the orbit becomes a circle; when the +process of shortening will again take place;--and so on forever. In the +case of the Earth, the orbit is passing from ellipse to circle. The +facts thus demonstrated do away, of course, with all necessity for +supposing an ether, and with all apprehension of the system's +instability--on the ether's account. + +It will be remembered that I have myself assumed what we may term _an +ether_. I have spoken of a subtle _influence_ which we know to be ever +in attendance upon matter, although becoming manifest only through +matter's heterogeneity. To this _influence_--without daring to touch it +at all in any effort at explaining its awful _nature_--I have referred +the various phaenomena of electricity, heat, light, magnetism; and +more--of vitality, consciousness, and thought--in a word, of spirituality. +It will be seen, at once, then, that the ether thus conceived is +radically distinct from the ether of the astronomers; inasmuch as theirs +is _matter_ and mine _not_. + +With the idea of a material ether, seems, thus, to have departed +altogether the thought of that universal agglomeration so long +predetermined by the poetical fancy of mankind:--an agglomeration in +which a sound Philosophy might have been warranted in putting faith, at +least to a certain extent, if for no other reason than that by this +poetical fancy it _had_ been so predetermined. But so far as +Astronomy--so far as mere Physics have yet spoken, the cycles of the +Universe are perpetual--the Universe has no conceivable end. Had an end +been demonstrated, however, from so purely collateral a cause as an +ether, Man's instinct of the Divine _capacity to adapt_, would have +rebelled against the demonstration. We should have been forced to regard +the Universe with some such sense of dissatisfaction as we experience in +contemplating an unnecessarily complex work of human art. Creation would +have affected us as an imperfect _plot_ in a romance, where the +_denoument_ is awkwardly brought about by interposed incidents external +and foreign to the main subject; instead of springing out of the bosom +of the thesis--out of the heart of the ruling idea--instead of arising as +a result of the primary proposition--as inseparable and inevitable part +and parcel of the fundamental conception of the book. + +What I mean by the symmetry of mere surface will now be more clearly +understood. It is simply by the blandishment of this symmetry that we +have been beguiled into the general idea of which Maedler's hypothesis is +but a part--the idea of the vorticial indrawing of the orbs. Dismissing +this nakedly physical conception, the symmetry of principle sees the end +of all things metaphysically involved in the thought of a beginning; +seeks and finds in this origin of all things the _rudiment_ of this end; +and perceives the impiety of supposing this end likely to be brought +about less simply--less directly--less obviously--less artistically--than +through _the reaction of the originating Act_. + +Recurring, then, to a previous suggestion, let us understand the +systems--let us understand each star, with its attendant planets--as but a +Titanic atom existing in space with precisely the same inclination for +Unity which characterized, in the beginning, the actual atoms after +their irradiation throughout the Universal sphere. As these original +atoms rushed towards each other in generally straight lines, so let us +conceive as at least generally rectilinear, the paths of the +system-atoms towards their respective centres of aggregation:--and in +this direct drawing together of the systems into clusters, with a +similar and simultaneous drawing together of the clusters themselves +while undergoing consolidation, we have at length attained the great +_Now_--the awful Present--the Existing Condition of the Universe. + +Of the still more awful Future a not irrational analogy may guide us in +framing an hypothesis. The equilibrium between the centripetal and +centrifugal forces of each system, being necessarily destroyed upon +attainment of a certain proximity to the nucleus of the cluster to which +it belongs, there must occur, at once, a chaotic or seemingly chaotic +precipitation, of the moons upon the planets, of the planets upon the +suns, and of the suns upon the nuclei; and the general result of this +precipitation must be the gathering of the myriad now-existing stars of +the firmament into an almost infinitely less number of almost infinitely +superior spheres. In being immeasurably fewer, the worlds of that day +will be immeasurably greater than our own. Then, indeed, amid +unfathomable abysses, will be glaring unimaginable suns. But all this +will be merely a climacic magnificence foreboding the great End. Of this +End the new genesis described, can be but a very partial postponement. +While undergoing consolidation, the clusters themselves, with a speed +prodigiously accumulative, have been rushing towards their own general +centre--and now, with a thousand-fold electric velocity, commensurate +only with their material grandeur and with the spiritual passion of +their appetite for oneness, the majestic remnants of the tribe of Stars +flash, at length, into a common embrace. The inevitable catastrophe is +at hand. + +But this catastrophe--what is it? We have seen accomplished the +ingathering of the orbs. Henceforward, are we not to understand _one +material globe of globes_ as constituting and comprehending the +Universe? Such a fancy would be altogether at war with every assumption +and consideration of this Discourse. + +I have already alluded to that absolute _reciprocity of adaptation_ +which is the idiosyncrasy of the divine Art--stamping it divine. Up to +this point of our reflections, we have been regarding the electrical +influence as a something by dint of whose repulsion alone Matter is +enabled to exist in that state of diffusion demanded for the fulfilment +of its purposes:--so far, in a word, we have been considering the +influence in question as ordained for Matter's sake--to subserve the +objects of matter. With a perfectly legitimate reciprocity, we are now +permitted to look at Matter, as created _solely for the sake of this +influence_--solely to serve the objects of this spiritual Ether. Through +the aid--by the means--through the agency of Matter, and by dint of its +heterogeneity--is this Ether manifested--is _Spirit individualized_. It is +merely in the development of this Ether, through heterogeneity, that +particular masses of Matter become animate--sensitive--and in the ratio of +their heterogeneity;--some reaching a degree of sensitiveness involving +what we call _Thought_ and thus attaining Conscious Intelligence. + +In this view, we are enabled to perceive Matter as a Means--not as an +End. Its purposes are thus seen to have been comprehended in its +diffusion; and with the return into Unity these purposes cease. The +absolutely consolidated globe of globes would be _objectless_:--therefore +not for a moment could it continue to exist. Matter, created for an end, +would unquestionably, on fulfilment of that end, be Matter no longer. +Let us endeavor to understand that it would disappear, and that God +would remain all in all. + +That every work of Divine conception must coeexist and coeexpire with its +particular design, seems to me especially obvious; and I make no doubt +that, on perceiving the final globe of globes to be _objectless_, the +majority of my readers will be satisfied with my "_therefore_ it cannot +continue to exist." Nevertheless, as the startling thought of its +instantaneous disappearance is one which the most powerful intellect +cannot be expected readily to entertain on grounds so decidedly +abstract, let us endeavor to look at the idea from some other and more +ordinary point of view:--let us see how thoroughly and beautifully it is +corroborated in an _a posteriori_ consideration of Matter as we actually +find it. + +I have before said that "Attraction and Repulsion being undeniably the +sole properties by which Matter is manifested to Mind, we are justified +in assuming that Matter _exists_ only as Attraction and Repulsion--in +other words that Attraction and Repulsion _are_ Matter; there being no +conceivable case in which we may not employ the term Matter and the +terms 'Attraction' and 'Repulsion' taken together, as equivalent, and +therefore convertible, expressions in Logic."[14] + + [14] Page 37. + +Now the very definition of Attraction implies particularity--the +existence of parts, particles, or atoms; for we define it as the +tendency of "each atom &c. to every other atom" &c. according to a +certain law. Of course where there are _no_ parts--where there is +absolute Unity--where the tendency to oneness is satisfied--there can be +no Attraction:--this has been fully shown, and all Philosophy admits it. +When, on fulfilment of its purposes, then, Matter shall have returned +into its original condition of _One_--a condition which presupposes the +expulsion of the separative ether, whose province and whose capacity are +limited to keeping the atoms apart until that great day when, this ether +being no longer needed, the overwhelming pressure of the finally +collective Attraction shall at length just sufficiently predominate[15] +and expel it:--when, I say, Matter, finally, expelling the Ether, shall +have returned into absolute Unity,--it will then (to speak paradoxically +for the moment) be Matter without Attraction and without Repulsion--in +other words, Matter without Matter--in other words, again, _Matter no +more_. In sinking into Unity, it will sink at once into that Nothingness +which, to all Finite Perception, Unity must be--into that Material +Nihility from which alone we can conceive it to have been evoked--to have +been _created_ by the Volition of God. + + [15] "Gravity, therefore, must be the strongest of forces."--See + page 39. + +I repeat then--Let us endeavor to comprehend that the final globe of +globes will instantaneously disappear, and that God will remain all in +all. + +But are we here to pause? Not so. On the Universal agglomeration and +dissolution, we can readily conceive that a new and perhaps totally +different series of conditions may ensue--another creation and +irradiation, returning into itself--another action and reaction of the +Divine Will. Guiding our imaginations by that omniprevalent law of laws, +the law of periodicity, are we not, indeed, more than justified in +entertaining a belief--let us say, rather, in indulging a hope--that the +processes we have here ventured to contemplate will be renewed forever, +and forever, and forever; a novel Universe swelling into existence, and +then subsiding into nothingness, at every throb of the Heart Divine? + +And now--this Heart Divine--what is it? _It is our own._ + +Let not the merely seeming irreverence of this idea frighten our souls +from that cool exercise of consciousness--from that deep tranquillity of +self-inspection--through which alone we can hope to attain the presence +of this, the most sublime of truths, and look it leisurely in the face. + +The _phaenomena_ on which our conclusions must at this point depend, are +merely spiritual shadows, but not the less thoroughly substantial. + +We walk about, amid the destinies of our world-existence, encompassed by +dim but ever present _Memories_ of a Destiny more vast--very distant in +the by-gone time, and infinitely awful. + +We live out a Youth peculiarly haunted by such dreams; yet never +mistaking them for dreams. As Memories we _know_ them. _During our +Youth_ the distinction is too clear to deceive us even for a moment. + +So long as this Youth endures, the feeling _that we exist_, is the most +natural of all feelings. We understand it _thoroughly_. That there was a +period at which we did _not_ exist--or, that it might so have happened +that we never had existed at all--are the considerations, indeed, which +_during this youth_, we find difficulty in understanding. Why we should +_not_ exist, is, _up to the epoch of our Manhood_, of all queries the most +unanswerable. Existence--self-existence--existence from all Time and to +all Eternity--seems, up to the epoch of Manhood, a normal and +unquestionable condition:--_seems, because it is_. + +But now comes the period at which a conventional World-Reason awakens us +from the truth of our dream. Doubt, Surprise and Incomprehensibility +arrive at the same moment. They say:--"You live and the time was when you +lived not. You have been created. An Intelligence exists greater than +your own; and it is only through this Intelligence you live at all." +These things we struggle to comprehend and cannot:--_cannot_, because +these things, being untrue, are thus, of necessity, incomprehensible. + +No thinking being lives who, at some luminous point of his life of +thought, has not felt himself lost amid the surges of futile efforts at +understanding, or believing, that anything exists _greater than his own +soul_. The utter impossibility of any one's soul feeling itself inferior +to another; the intense, overwhelming dissatisfaction and rebellion at +the thought;--these, with the omniprevalent aspirations at perfection, +are but the spiritual, coincident with the material, struggles towards +the original Unity--are, to my mind at least, a species of proof far +surpassing what Man terms demonstration, that no one soul _is_ inferior +to another--that nothing is, or can be, superior to any one soul--that +each soul is, in part, its own God--its own Creator:--in a word, that +God--the material _and_ spiritual God--_now_ exists solely in the diffused +Matter and Spirit of the Universe; and that the regathering of this +diffused Matter and Spirit will be but the re-constitution of the +_purely_ Spiritual and Individual God. + +In this view, and in this view alone, we comprehend the riddles of +Divine Injustice--of Inexorable Fate. In this view alone the existence of +Evil becomes intelligible; but in this view it becomes more--it becomes +endurable. Our souls no longer rebel at a _Sorrow_ which we ourselves +have imposed upon ourselves, in furtherance of our own purposes--with a +view--if even with a futile view--to the extension of our own _Joy_. + +I have spoken of _Memories_ that haunt us during our youth. They +sometimes pursue us even in our Manhood:--assume gradually less and less +indefinite shapes:--now and then speak to us with low voices, saying: + +"There was an epoch in the Night of Time, when a still-existent Being +existed--one of an absolutely infinite number of similar Beings that +people the absolutely infinite domains of the absolutely infinite +space.[16] It was not and is not in the power of this Being--any more +than it is in your own--to extend, by actual increase, the joy of his +Existence; but just as it _is_ in your power to expand or to concentrate +your pleasures (the absolute amount of happiness remaining always the +same) so did and does a similar capability appertain to this Divine +Being, who thus passes his Eternity in perpetual variation of +Concentrated Self and almost Infinite Self-Diffusion. What you call The +Universe is but his present expansive existence. He now feels his life +through an infinity of imperfect pleasures--the partial and +pain-intertangled pleasures of those inconceivably numerous things which +you designate as his creatures, but which are really but infinite +individualizations of Himself. All these creatures--_all_--those which you +term animate, as well as those to whom you deny life for no better +reason than that you do not behold it in operation--_all_ these +creatures have, in a greater or less degree, a capacity for pleasure +and for pain:--_but the general sum of their sensations is precisely +that amount of Happiness which appertains by right to the Divine Being +when concentrated within Himself_. These creatures are all, too, more or +less conscious Intelligences; conscious, first, of a proper identity; +conscious, secondly and by faint indeterminate glimpses, of an identity +with the Divine Being of whom we speak--of an identity with God. Of the +two classes of consciousness, fancy that the former will grow weaker, +the latter stronger, during the long succession of ages which must +elapse before these myriads of individual Intelligences become +blended--when the bright stars become blended--into One. Think that the +sense of individual identity will be gradually merged in the general +consciousness--that Man, for example, ceasing imperceptibly to feel +himself Man, will at length attain that awfully triumphant epoch when he +shall recognize his existence as that of Jehovah. In the meantime bear +in mind that all is Life--Life--Life within Life--the less within the +greater, and all within the _Spirit Divine_." + + [16] See pages 102-103--Paragraph commencing "I reply that the + right," and ending "proper and particular God." + +THE END. + + + + +155 Broadway, NEW YORK. 142 Strand, LONDON. + +Of late firm of WILEY & PUTNAM. + + +New Works in Press, + +Or recently published, by + +GEORGE P. PUTNAM, + +155 Broadway, New York. + + +G. P. PUTNAM has the pleasure of announcing that, agreeably to his +contract with the distinguished author, he has now in the course of +publication + +_A new, uniform, and complete edition_ + +OF THE + +Works of Washington Irving, + +Revised and enlarged by the Author, + +_In Twelve Elegant Duodecimo Volumes_, + +Beautifully printed with new type, and on superior paper, made expressly +for the purpose. + + +The first volume of the Series will be + +The Sketch-Book, + +complete in one volume, + +which will be ready on the first day of September. + + +Knickerbocker's History of New York, + +with revisions and copious additions, + +will be published on the 1st of October. + + +The Life and Voyages of Columbus, + +Vol. I. on the 1st of November, + +and the succeeding volumes will be issued on the first day of each month +until completed;--as follows: + + _The Sketch-Book, in one volume. + Knickerbocker's New York, in one volume. + Tales of a Traveller, in one volume. + Bracebridge Hall, in one volume. + The Conquest of Grenada, in one volume. + The Alhambra, in one volume. + The Spanish Legends, in one vol. + The Crayon Miscellany, in one vol.--Abbotsford, Newstead, + The Prairies, &c. + Life and Voyages of Columbus, and The Companions of Columbus, 2 vols. + Adventures of Captain Bonneville, one vol. + Astoria, one volume._ + + +The Illustrated Sketch-Book. + +In October will be published, + +The Sketch-Book. + +BY WASHINGTON IRVING. + +One volume, square octavo. + +Illustrated with a series of highly-finished Engravings on wood, from +Designs by Darley and others, engraved in the best style by Childs, +Herrick, &c. This edition will be printed on paper of the finest +quality, similar in size and style to the new edition of "Halleck's +Poems." It is intended that the illustrations shall be superior to any +engravings on wood yet produced in this country, and that the mechanical +execution of the volume, altogether, shall be worthy of the author's +reputation. It will form an elegant and appropriate gift-book for all +seasons. + + +The Illustrated Knickerbocker, + +With a series of Original Designs, in one vol., octavo, is also in +preparation. + + +Mr. Putnam has also the honor to announce that he will publish at +intervals (in connexion, and uniform with the other collected writings), + +_Mr. Irving's New Works_, + +now nearly ready for the press: including + +The Life of Mohammed; The Life of Washington; new volumes of +Miscellanies, Biographies, &c. + + * * * This being the first uniform and complete edition of Mr. + Irving's works, either in this country or in Europe, the + publisher confidently believes that the undertaking will meet + with a prompt and cordial response. To say this, is perhaps + superfluous and impertinent; for it is a truism that no + _American_ book-case (not to say _library_) can be well filled + without the works of Washington Irving; while the English + language itself comprises no purer models of composition. + + +G. P. Putnam has also made arrangements for the early commencement of +new works or new editions of the works of + + _Miss C. M. Sedgwick, + Prof. A. Gray, + Leigh Hunt, + Chas. Fenno Hoffman, + Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, + Thomas Carlyle, + George H. Calvert, + Mrs. C. M. Kirkland, + R. Monckton Milnes, + J. Bayard Taylor, + Mary Howitt, + Mrs. Jameson, + S. Wells Williams, + W. M. Thackeray, + Charles Lamb, + A. J. Downing, + Thos. Hood, + Elliot Warburton_. + + +The following new works are now ready, or will be published this season: + +I. + +Sophisms of the Protective Policy. + +Translated from the French of F. Bastiat. With an introduction by +Francis Lieber, LL.D. Professor in South Carolina College, Editor of the +Encyclopedia Americana, &c. 12mo. 75 cents. + + "It is a book not for the million but for millions, and we + believe if a copy could be put into the hands of every + school-boy in the Union, the next generation would be + inconceivably wiser, richer, and happier than the + present."--_Mirror._ + +II. + +Grecian and Roman Mythology: + +With original illustrations. Adapted for the use of Universities and +High Schools, and for popular reading. By M. A. Dwight. With an +introduction by Tayler Lewis, Professor of Greek, University of New +York. 12mo. (On 1st September.) + +Also a fine edition in octavo, with illustrations. + + * * * This work has been prepared with great care, illustrated with + 20 effective outline drawings, and is designed to treat the + subject in an original, comprehensive, and unexceptionable + manner, so as to fill the place as a text book which is yet + unsupplied; while it will also be an attractive and readable + table book for general use. It will be at once introduced as a + text book in the University of New York and other colleges and + schools. + +III. + +Eureka: a Prose Poem. + +Or the Physical and Metaphysical Universe. + +By Edgar A. Poe, Esq. Handsomely printed, 12mo. Cloth, 75 cents. + + "A most extraordinary Essay. We shall be greatly surprised if + this work does not create a most profound sensation among the + literary and scientific classes."--_New York Express._ + +IV. + +Oriental Life Illustrated. + +Being a new edition of Eoethen, or Traces of Travel in the East. With +fine illustrations on Steel. 12mo. elegantly bound, $1 50. + + * * * This new and unique volume, superbly illuminated by Mapleson, + and comprising original articles by distinguished writers, will + be the most elegant and recherche book of the kind ever + produced in this country. It will be ready in October. + +A new and superior edition of the PEARLS OF AMERICAN POETRY will also be +published this season. + +V. + +The Book of Dainty Devices. + +In an elegant small folio volume. + +Lays of the Western World. + +VI. + +Dr. Klipstein's Anglo-Saxon Course of Study. + +In uniform 12mo. volumes. + +I. + +A Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Language. By Louis F. Klipstein, AA.LL.M. +and PH.D., of the University of Giessen. + + * * * This work recommends itself particularly to the attention of + every American student who "glories in his Anglo-Saxon descent" + or Teutonic lineage, as well as of all who desire an + acquaintance with a language which lies as the foundation of + the English, and throws a light upon its elements and + structure, derivable from no other source. Of the importance + and interesting nature of the study there can be no doubt, and + we agree with those who think that the time is coming when it + will be considered "utterly disgraceful for any well-bred + Englishman or American" to have neglected it. With regard to + the merits of Dr. Klipstein's Grammar, we will only say, that + it has been already adopted as a text-book in some of the + leading Institutions of our country. + +[The following are also in press.] + +II. + +Analecta Anglo-Saxonica, with an Introductory Ethnographical Essay, +Copious Notes, Critical and Explanatory, and a Glossary in which are +shown the Indo-Germanic and other Affinities of the Language. _By the +same._ + +In this work appear the fruits of considerable research, and, we may +add, learning. The Ethnology of Europe is succinctly, but clearly +illustrated, the Anglo-Saxon language completely analysed, revealing the +utmost harmony of combination from its elements, its forms and roots +compared with those in kindred dialects and cognate tongues, its +position in the Teutonic family and Indo-Germanic range established, and +the genuine relation of the English to its great parent properly set +forth. To those who are fond of the comparative study of language, the +Glossary will prove an invaluable aid, apart from its particular object. + +III. + +Natale Sancti Gregorii Papae.--AElfric's Homily on the Birth-day of St. +Gregory, and Collateral Extracts from King Alfred's version of Bede's +Ecclesiastical History and the Saxon Chronicle, with a full rendering +into English, Notes Critical and Explanatory, and an Index of Words. _By +the same._ + +IV. + +Extracts from the Anglo-Saxon-Gospels, a Portion of the Anglo-Saxon +Paraphrase of the Book of Psalms, and other Selections of a Sacred Order +in the same Language, with a Translation into English, and Notes +Critical and Explanatory. _By the same._ + +These two works are prepared in such a way as in themselves, with the +aid of the Grammar, to afford every facility to the Anglo-Saxon Student. +AElfric's Homily is remarkable for beauty of composition, and interesting +as setting forth Augustine's Mission to the "Land of the Angles." + +V. + +Tha Halgan Godspel on Englisc--the Anglo-Saxon Version of the Holy +Gospels. Edited by Benjamin Thorpe, F.S.A. _Reprinted by the same. Now +ready._ + +This, the earliest "English" version of the Four Gospels, will be found +interesting to the antiquarian and theologian, as well as serviceable to +the student in his investigations of the language. The Text, besides the +usual but unbroken division, appears, with the Rubrics, as read in the +early Anglican Church. + + +_Nearly Ready._ + +Dr. Bosworth's Compendious Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Small 8vo. + +VII. + +Study of Modern Languages. + +Part First; French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and English. + +By L. F. Klipstein, AA.LL.M. and Ph.D. One Vol. Imperial 8vo. 75 cents +paper; $1 00 cloth. + +This work, which is intended equally for the simultaneous and the +separate study of the languages that it sets forth, and which is adapted +as well for the native of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, or Portugal, as +for him to whom English is vernacular, in the acquirement of any one of +the other tongues besides his own, will be found an acceptable manual +not only to the tyro, but to the more advanced scholar. The reading +portion of the matter is interesting, and the text in every case +remarkably correct, while the Elementary Phrases, forms of Cards, +Letters, Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes, Receipts, &c., in the six +languages, constitute what has long been a desideratum from the American +press. For the comparative study of the _Romanic_ tongues the work +affords unusual facilities. + +VIII. + +Pedestrian Tour in Europe. + +Views a-Foot; or Europe seen with Knapsack and Staff. + +By J. Bayard Taylor. + +A new edition with an additional chapter, and a sketch of the author in +pedestrian costume, from a drawing by T. Buchanan Read. 12mo. Cloth. + +IX. + +A New Edition of + +Clarke's Shakspeare Concordance. + +A Complete Concordance to Shakspeare: being a Verbal Index to ALL the +PASSAGES in the Dramatic Works of the Poet. By Mrs. Cowden Clarke. + +"Order gave each thing view." + +One large Vol. comprising 2560 closely printed columns,--(indicating +_every word and passage_ in Shakspeare's Works). Price $6. Cloth. + + "The result of sixteen years of untiring labor. The different + editions of Shakspeare have been carefully collated by the + compiler, and every possible means taken to insure the + correctness of the work. As it now stands, a person can find a + particular passage in Shakspeare by simply remembering one word + of it, and is also referred to the act and scene of the play in + which it occurs. As a mere dictionary of Shakspearian language + and phrases, it is of great value; but it is also a dictionary + of his thoughts and imaginations. It altogether supersedes the + volumes of Twiss and Ayscough, and should be on every student's + shelves"--_Boston Courier._ + + * * * This extraordinary work is printed in London and the price + there _at present_ is L2. 5s. 0d. or about $12. A large part of + the edition having been purchased for this market, it is + furnished here for the very low price of $6, bound in cloth. + +_Also--By same Author._ + +The Book of Shakspeare Proverbs. + +18mo. 75 cts. + + +_Dr. Lieber's Poetical Address to the American Republic._ + +16mo. 25 cents. + +The West: + +A Metrical Epistle. + +BY FRANCIS LIEBER. + + * * * Dr. Lieber, the distinguished Professor of Political Economy + in South Carolina College, Author of "Political Ethics," &c., + has just sailed for his native country--Germany--with the view of + aiding in the great cause of Constitutional and Rational + Freedom. This little volume proves that he has well studied + that subject during his long residence in this his adopted + country--and his able and valuable opinions on American Society + and Progress, carry with them a peculiar interest at this time. + + +RECENT PUBLICATIONS. + +Alexander.--Commentary on the Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah. By Prof. J. +A. Alexander. Royal 8vo. cloth, $3. + +Alexander.--Commentary on the Later Prophecies of Isaiah. By Prof. J. A. +Alexander. Royal 8vo. cloth, $2 50. + +Ancient Moral Tales, from the Gesta Romanorum, &c. 1 vol. 12mo. green +cloth. + + "A quiet humor, a quaintness and terseness of style, will + strongly recommend them."--_English Churchman._ + +Architecture.--Hints on Public Architecture; issued under the Direction +of the "Smithsonian Institution." Imperial 4to. with Illustrations. (In +preparation.) + + This work will contain numerous and valuable illustrations, + including two perspective views of the buildings of the + Smithsonian Institution. The Appendix will contain the results + of a research under the auspices of the Institution to test the + properties of the most important building materials throughout + the United States. + +Bastiat.--Sophisms of the Protective Policy. Translated from the French +of F. Bastiat. 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