The biologist can
push it back to the
original protist,
and the chemist can
push it back to the
crystal, but none of
them touch the real
question of why or
how the thing began
at all. The
astronomer goes back
untold millions of
years and ends in
gas and emptiness,
and then the
mathematician sweeps
the whole cosmos
into unreality and
leaves one with mind
as the only thing of
which we have any
immediate
apprehension. Cogito
ergo sum, ergo omnia
esse videntur. All
this bother, and we
are no further than
Descartes. Have you
noticed that the
astronomers and
mathematicians are
much the most
cheerful people of
the lot? I suppose
that perpetually
contemplating things
on so vast a scale
makes them feel
either that it
doesn't matter a
hoot anyway, or that
anything so large
and elaborate must
have some sense in
it somewhere.
Citation:
With R. Eustace, The
Documents in the
Case, New York:
Harper and Row,
1930, p. 54.