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 THE DA T AFTER BE A TH. 267 germs journey through space, we reply that we must guard against the mania for insisting on everything being explained. Absolute explanation is forbidden to the limit of our intelli- • gence. "We are forced to confess our powerlessness whenever we try to explain the phenomena of nature rigorously. What is the true cause of the fall of bodies, of the gravitation of the stars, of electricity, of heat ? What is the cause of the circu- lation of our blood, of the beating of our hearts 1 The deepest obscurity veils the primary causes of these phenomena, which we all behold every day ; and the more earnestly we desire to penetrate the secret essence, the more the darkness deepens in our minds. Since the time of If ewton, the physicists have laid down a wise and excellent principle. They have agreed to study the laws of physical phenomena with sedulous care, to measure with exactness the effects of heat, weight, electricity, or Hght, but, also, never to disquiet themselves by researches into the causes of these phenomena. The more we learn, the further we advance in the knowledge of the universe and its laws, the more we become convinced that man knows abso- lutely nothing about first causes, that he ought to esteem himself happy in knowing the laws according to which the effects of these first causes manifest themselves ; that is to say, the physical and vital actions which are visible to us, but that he ought, in the interests of his own peace of mind, to lay down a rule that he would never seek to know the where- fore of things. Pliny, speaking of first causes, said : "Latent in majestate mundi" (" They are hidden in the majesty of the world.") The thought is as fine as the phrase is eloquent. Let us, then, leave to nature her secrets, and, if we are led to