NATURE OF THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE 305

we do not by any means intend to assert that this view is

an absolutely certain and evident one. We nevertheless

regard it as highly probable, and we think it not unlikely

that this may be the truth which the system of Monism

shadows forth, as it seems to us, imperfectly and irra-

tionally.

We have spoken of any motion of the universe in its

entirety as being an impossibility. Some of our readers

may exclaim this is, indeed, impossible, because the universe

is, and must be, infinite. But this is an utter mistake, and

one due to that inveterate slavery of the reason to the

imagination under which so many persons even some men

of science seem content to remain.

We have never seen anything with nothing beyond it,

and therefore, try as we may, we can never imagine a

final limit outside which nothing is or can be. We cannot

imagine a boundary line over which no arm could be

thrust, and beyond which no glance even could ever be

cast. Such being the case, it is, and must be, an utterly

futile attempt to imagine the universe as terminated, and

without any possibility of existence beyond it. But our

impotence to imagine the universe as finite is no reason

whatever for thinking that finite it cannot be.

Passing now from the consideration of the extent of the

universe, it seems needful to say a few words with respect

to prevalent conceptions respecting its composition, what

may be the ultimate nature of all the various activities

it manifests, and whether they can be resolved into one

fundamental activity.

Nothing is more marked, or more remarkable, than the

tendency of many scientific men to try and describe all other

phenomena in terms of motion, and especially by the motion

of minute moving particles. This may be in terms of such

moving particles, " Molecular Motion " or a " dance of

x

we do not by any means intend to assert that this view is

an absolutely certain and evident one. We nevertheless

regard it as highly probable, and we think it not unlikely

that this may be the truth which the system of Monism

shadows forth, as it seems to us, imperfectly and irra-

tionally.

We have spoken of any motion of the universe in its

entirety as being an impossibility. Some of our readers

may exclaim this is, indeed, impossible, because the universe

is, and must be, infinite. But this is an utter mistake, and

one due to that inveterate slavery of the reason to the

imagination under which so many persons even some men

of science seem content to remain.

We have never seen anything with nothing beyond it,

and therefore, try as we may, we can never imagine a

final limit outside which nothing is or can be. We cannot

imagine a boundary line over which no arm could be

thrust, and beyond which no glance even could ever be

cast. Such being the case, it is, and must be, an utterly

futile attempt to imagine the universe as terminated, and

without any possibility of existence beyond it. But our

impotence to imagine the universe as finite is no reason

whatever for thinking that finite it cannot be.

Passing now from the consideration of the extent of the

universe, it seems needful to say a few words with respect

to prevalent conceptions respecting its composition, what

may be the ultimate nature of all the various activities

it manifests, and whether they can be resolved into one

fundamental activity.

Nothing is more marked, or more remarkable, than the

tendency of many scientific men to try and describe all other

phenomena in terms of motion, and especially by the motion

of minute moving particles. This may be in terms of such

moving particles, " Molecular Motion " or a " dance of

x