These, then, are veritable windows of
the Galaxy, and when looking out of them one is face to face with the
great mystery of infinite space. There the known universe visibly
ends, but manifestly space itself does not end there. It is not within
the power of thought to conceive an end to space, for the instant we
think of a terminal point or line the mind leaps forward to the
beyond. There must be space outside as well as inside. Eternity of
time and infinity of space are ideas that the intellect cannot fully
grasp, but neither can it grasp the idea of a limitation to either
space or time. The metaphysical conceptions of hypergeometry, or
fourth-dimensional space, do not aid us.
Having, then, discovered that the universe is a thing contained in
something indefinitely greater than itself; having looked out of its
windows and found only the gloom of starless night outside -- what
conclusions are we to draw concerning the beyond? It seems as empty as
a vacuum, but is it really so? If it be, then our universe is a single
atom astray in the infinite; it is the only island in an ocean without
shores; it is the one oasis in an illimitable desert. Then the Milky
Way, with its wide-flung garland of stars, is afloat like a tiny
smoke-wreath amid a horror of immeasurable vacancy, or it is an
evanescent and solitary ring of sparkling froth cast up for a moment
on the viewless billows of immensity.
Pages:
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26