The inference is, that the limitation of our means of knowledge
renders altogether incompetent the imagination of an end to either Time
or Space. The greatest efforts of our combining faculty cannot exceed
the elements presented to it, and these elements contain nothing that
would set forth the situation of space ending, and obstruction not
beginning.
[ARE TIME AND SPACE INFINITE?]
Under these circumstances, it is an irrevelant enquiry, to ask, Are Time
and Space finite or infinite? Many philosophers have put the question,
and even answered it. They say Time has no beginning and no end, and
Space has no boundaries; or, as otherwise expressed,--Time and Space are
Infinite: an answer of such vagueness as to mean anything, from a
harmless and proper assertion of the limits of our faculties, up to the
verge of extravagance and self-contradiction.
When, in fact, people talk of the Infinite in Time and Space, they can
point to one intelligible signification; as to the rest, this word is
not a subject for scientific propositions, and the attempt at such can
lead only to contradictions. The Infinite is a phrase most various in
its purport: it is for the most part an emotional word, expressing human
desire and aspiration; a word of poetry, imagination, and preaching, not
a word to be discussed under science; no intellectual definition would
exhibit its emotional force.
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