illing (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 wi