The second property of our intelligence is, that we can generalise many
facts into one. Tracing agreement among the multifarious appearances of
things, we can comprehend in one statement a vast number of details. The
single law of gravity expresses the fall of a stone, the flow of rivers,
the retention of the moon in her circuit round the earth. Now, this
generalising sweep is a real advance in our knowledge, an ascent in the
matter of intelligence, a step towards centralising the empire of
science. What is more, this is the only real meaning of EXPLANATION.
A difficulty is solved, a mystery unriddled; when it can be shown to
resemble something else; to be an example of a fact already known.
Mystery is isolation, exception, or, it may be, apparent contradiction;
the resolution of the mystery is found in assimilation, identity,
fraternity. When all things are assimilated, so far as assimilation can
go, so far as likeness holds, there is an end to explanation; there is
an end to what the mind can do, or can intelligently desire.
[GRAVITY NOT A MYSTERY.]
Thus, when Gravity was generalised, by assimilating the terrestrial
attraction seen in falling bodies with the celestial attraction of the
sun and planets; and when, by fair presumption, the same power was
extended to the remote stars; when, also, the _law_ was ascertained, so
that the movements of the various bodies could be computed and
predicted, there was nothing further to be done; explanation was
exhausted.
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