But at this point our
mathematicians paused.
OINOS. And why, Agathos, should they have proceeded?
AGATHOS. Because there were some considerations of deep interest
beyond. It was deducible from what they knew, that to a being of
infinite understanding- one to whom the perfection of the algebraic
analysis lay unfolded- there could be no difficulty in tracing every
impulse given the air- and the ether through the air- to the
remotest consequences at any even infinitely remote epoch of time.
It is indeed demonstrable that every such impulse given the air, must,
in the end, impress every individual thing that exists within the
universe;- and the being of infinite understanding- the being whom
we have imagined- might trace the remote undulations of the impulse-
trace them upward and onward in their influences upon all particles of
an matter- upward and onward for ever in their modifications of old
forms- or, in other words, in their creation of new- until he found
them reflected- unimpressive at last- back from the throne of the
Godhead. And not only could such a thing do this, but at any epoch,
should a given result be afforded him- should one of these
numberless comets, for example, be presented to his inspection- he
could have no difficulty in determining, by the analytic
retrogradation, to what original impulse it was due. This power of
retrogradation in its absolute fulness and perfection- this faculty of
referring at all epochs, all effects to all causes- is of course the
prerogative of the Deity alone- but in every variety of degree,
short of the absolute perfection, is the power itself exercised by the
whole host of the Angelic intelligences.
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