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not also recognize their state of having come into being; if even in the numerical ratios of the planetary distances from one another, the sequence of their masses and sizes, the inclination of their axes, as in the form of star clusters and nebulae, almost everything has thus far eluded mathematical conceptual development (perhaps because, as I have already reminded, these ratios are the results of very diverse, partial celestial events⁷ original: "Himmels-Begebenheiten"): so in the terrestrial zone, where the diversity of matter actively appears and complicates the problems, the hope could likely not arise that the description of the world original: "Weltbeschreibung" would simultaneously be an explanation of the world original: "Welterklärung". Even Plato's spiritual generalizing power would not suffice there:⁸ where at every moment the attempt at a solution, at every elevated stage of knowledge, still lacks the conviction of knowing all the conditions under which the phenomena manifest themselves; all the substances whose active forces express themselves so mysteriously. I did not wish to omit touching freely upon the most important of all reproaches which have been directed against the scientific and literary composition of my Cosmos. Such a renewed justification was commanded of me by my obligation to the public, which for more than half a century now has bestowed a stimulating attention upon my works.

My purpose was to seek out laws and unmistakable proofs of a causal connection Causalzusammenhang: the principle that all events have a cause and are linked in a chain of necessity within individual large groups of real natural processes. The number and the importance of these individual groups has, for half a century, increased most fortunately with growing speed. Examples from widely separated fields are to be designated here with a few strokes.