ABSTRACT
When we pass from the conception of a spiritual unity of mankind to the thought of the Universe as a connected whole, we are confronted by problems of very great difficulty, with which we can only hope to deal in a somewhat tentative fashion. Aristotle's theory of a hierarchy of forms, imposed upon a primitive material, gives us a more systematic synopsis of the universe, and supplies an excellent basis for the study of the particular sciences, but fails to provide any ultimate explanation. The universe as known to Empedocles and Anaxagoras was a very different universe from that which was known to Newton and Kant; and, even since the time of Kant, there have been considerable changes in the way in which it is conceived by instructed and reflective minds, quite apart from any attempts at ultimate philosophical interpretation. Space and Time were regarded by Kant as the general forms of human perception.
