changes inflicts sufferings which are often without remedy, find no consola tion in the thought that they are at the mercy of blind forces, which cause, indifferently, now the destruction of a sun, and now the death of an animal cule. Contemplation of a universe which is without intelligible purpose yields no satisfaction. The desire to know what it all means is no less strong in the Agnostic than in others, and raises sympathy with them. Fail ing utterly to find any interpretation himself, he feels a regretful inability to accept the interpretations they offer."
Someone else was saying exactly the same thing to me the other day, "A sort of circum-rotation takes place, and in the centre of this vortex, end less in time and place, I appear, live, and disappear. This is certain. All the rest — 'i.e.' the conception of some intelligent being, from which I have proceeded, and for the attainment of whose object I exist in common with all that exists — such a conception is a self-deception."
There are two distinct and mutually contradictory theories of the universe which may be represented thus —
The Agnostic says, "I observe my self, a being born of my parents, in the same way as I observe all other living beings which surround me, and which
