THE METAPHYSICS OF SCIENCE. 365 



seem to float, we cannot say we seem to float, but we 

 seem to seem to float. All predication is annihilated. We 

 are conscious at first of existing in a world of realities; 

 then we float in a realm of unsubstantial visions ; then 

 everything, visions and realities alike, sinks into abso- 

 lute nihility. Such denial is the end of all philosophy 

 and all science alike. What do we say? All science and 

 all philosophy depend for their validity on the validity 

 of our reference of certain mental states to causal corre- 

 lates external to the mind. 



That the reference is valid, no one can doubt in a 

 practical manner. Denial, even of the speculative kind, 

 is impossible. The utmost which speculative thinking has 

 ever been able to do is to affirm the possibility that such 

 reference is invalid. The history of philosophy has shown 

 that the most eminent propounders of this possibility 

 have found, in after life, satisfactory ground for holding 

 that the reference is valid ; and that, therefore, a realm 

 of reality exists, and that it is such as reported in con- 

 sciousness. 



Every argument between two parties must proceed on 

 the fundamental admission that those states of mind which 

 have been here described as announcements of a correla- 

 tion between other states and external realities are truth- 

 ful announcements. If either deny this, he deprives him- 

 self of all ultimate ground for either affirmation or denial; 

 and his attempt to reason is like the effort to move the 

 world without the basis for a fulcrum. 



After this conspectus of the situation, let us examine 

 more attentively the foundations underneath the fabric 

 of physical science. 



The current conception of physical science presents it 



