76

144

while your asumptions would have been utterly
without warrant, it would have attained, in
the only way possible for any such assumption,
the merit of proceeding on a principle that
does not cut its own throat.

At this point, I should not wonder if some unwary
Laplacian were to say, “There seems to
be some reason in what you urge. I think,
myself, that it would be a sounder
proceeding to assume the different constitutions
of the universe to be equally
possible. But that is a mere detail,
and will alter the numerical result a bit,
but that is all.” Well, let us see how
much the result will be altered by