Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

20 Examination of the CHAP. IT -
have no idea of what infinity
idea of an actual infinite quantity of anything. We ap
prehend so much of extent or number as we can measure
is. I mean that we have no
or count, and can go on adding ; but wherever we stop, we
are on the margin of an infinite remainder, which is not
apprehended by us. Imagine a large crowd increasing in
all directions without end ; it is obvious that such number
is unintelligible to us ; as much so as any mysterious article
in a creed. Some idea of infinity we have no doubt, other
wise we should not be able to think or speak of it at all ;
and that seems to be more than a negative idea, as it has
been asserted to be ; for it is the idea of a progress,
or going
further, which is not negative, but positive ; but it is no
mental image or reflection of actual infinity. 1
We find then a certain class of truths in philosophy of
which we have only a half conception ; truths which, as
entertained by us, are only truths in tendency, not absolute,
not complete. We are conscious of the germs of various
ideas which we cannot open out, or realise as whole or con
sistent ones. We feel ourselves reaching after what we cannot
grasp, and moving onward in thought towards something
we cannot overtake. I move in the direction of a substance
and a cause in nature which I cannot find : my thought
reaches after infinity, but the effort is abortive, and the idea
remains for ever only beginning. I encounter mysterious
truths in
philosophy before I come to them in religion,
natural or revealed. My reason itself introduces me to
them. Were I without the faculty of reason, I should not
have these ideas at all, or derive therefore any perplexity
from them. I should want no substance underneath my
impressions ; I should have no sense of an excess beyond
the range of : my eye but reason creates thesa movements
1 It is an oblique proof of the ce qu il est. II est faux qu il soit pair,
mysteriousness of infinite number, il est faux qu il soit impair; car en
tli at it can be neither odd nor even. ajoutant 1 unite, il ne change point
Nous connaissons qu il y auninfini, de nature: cependant c est un nomet
ignorons sa nature, comme nous bre, et tout nombre est pair ou im-
cela s entend
s-iyons qu il est faux qua les nombres pair ; il est vrai que
soient finis; doncilestvraiqu ilyaun de tous nombres finis. Pascal (ed.
infini en nombre, mais nous ne savons
Faugere), vol. ii. p. 164.