308 THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

exist, to try and represent all the phenomena of the world

by mental images of particles in motion and by dances

of atoms.

We do not of course, for one moment, mean to under-

rate the enormous value and practical utility of working

hypotheses such as "the atomic theory," the "undulatory

theory of light," of vibrating ethereal vortex rings, etc., etc.

Our only intention is to point out that such theories are to

be recognized for what they really are, and not regarded, as

is too frequently the case, as absolute truths, really evident,

explaining satisfactorily the phenomena of nature, and con-

stituting an important part of the real matter of science, and

as truths which have been shown to be finally and absolutely

evident. The futility of such explanations may easily be

seen by thinking of such ultimate atoms as magnified to

inches in diameter. Then all the difficulties which we can

feel as to the ultimate composition of larger bodies, will

be found to be no less existent as regards the molecules and

atoms themselves.

Leaving now the subject of motion, and proceeding to

consider the truth as to space and time, we again meet with

the deluding consequences of uniform sensuous experience

upon the imagination.

Now (as we said when speaking of the supposed necessary

infinity of the universe), no man, anywhere or anywhen, has

ever met with an object which has not got some other object

beyond it. No man, also, has ever found anything to happen

without finding that something else happened after it. It

results from this constant and invariable experience that it is

utterly impossible for us to imagine anything to exist without

something beyond it, or to imagine anything to happen with-

out something, sooner or later, happening after it.

Thus it is that men who have not emancipated themselves

from the chains of their sense-perceptions, declare, as we

exist, to try and represent all the phenomena of the world

by mental images of particles in motion and by dances

of atoms.

We do not of course, for one moment, mean to under-

rate the enormous value and practical utility of working

hypotheses such as "the atomic theory," the "undulatory

theory of light," of vibrating ethereal vortex rings, etc., etc.

Our only intention is to point out that such theories are to

be recognized for what they really are, and not regarded, as

is too frequently the case, as absolute truths, really evident,

explaining satisfactorily the phenomena of nature, and con-

stituting an important part of the real matter of science, and

as truths which have been shown to be finally and absolutely

evident. The futility of such explanations may easily be

seen by thinking of such ultimate atoms as magnified to

inches in diameter. Then all the difficulties which we can

feel as to the ultimate composition of larger bodies, will

be found to be no less existent as regards the molecules and

atoms themselves.

Leaving now the subject of motion, and proceeding to

consider the truth as to space and time, we again meet with

the deluding consequences of uniform sensuous experience

upon the imagination.

Now (as we said when speaking of the supposed necessary

infinity of the universe), no man, anywhere or anywhen, has

ever met with an object which has not got some other object

beyond it. No man, also, has ever found anything to happen

without finding that something else happened after it. It

results from this constant and invariable experience that it is

utterly impossible for us to imagine anything to exist without

something beyond it, or to imagine anything to happen with-

out something, sooner or later, happening after it.

Thus it is that men who have not emancipated themselves

from the chains of their sense-perceptions, declare, as we