74 THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



and work where a harvest may even at present be 

 garnered. 



S 17. — The Term Knozvledgc is Meaningless if applied to 



Unthinkable Tilings 



We are now, I think, in a position to clearly grasp 

 what we mean by the facts of science ; we see that its 

 field is ultimately based upon sensations. The familiar 

 side of sensations, sense-impressions, excite the mind to 

 the formation of constructs and conceptions, and these 

 again, by association and generalisation, furnish us with 

 the whole range of material to which the scientific method 

 applies. Shall we say that there are limits to the scientific 

 method — that our power of knowledge is imprisoned 

 within the narrow bounds of sense - impression ? The 

 question is an absurd one until it has been demonstrated 

 that a definition can be found for knowledge, which shall 

 include what does not lie in the plane of men's thought. 

 Our only experience of thought is associated with the 

 brain of man ; no inference can possibly be legitimate 

 which carries thought any further than nervous systems 

 akin to his. But human thought has its ultimate source 

 in sense-impressions, beyond which it cannot reach. We 

 can therefore only show that our knowledge is of necessity 

 limited by demonstrating that there are problems within 

 the sphere of man's thought, the only sphere where 

 thought can be legitimately said to exist, which can never 

 be solved. Such a demonstration I, for one, have never 

 met with, and I believe that it can never be given. We 

 must one and all confess that within the sphere of 

 thinkable things our knowledge is still the veriest shred. 

 We may even go so far as to assert that unto complete 

 knowledge we shall never attain in finite time ; but this 

 admission differs widely from the assertion that know- 

 ledge is possible as to things outside thought, but yet, 

 however possible, must be unattainable. Such an asser- 

 tion must seem hopelessly absurd unless we use knowledge 

 as a term for some relationship which exists between 



