io8 THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



— exist on the other side of sense- impressions, in the 

 unknown plus of sensations or in things -in -themselves. 

 Whatever there may be on that side, we cannot logically 

 infer it to be like anything whatever on this side. Scien- 

 tifically we must remain agnostic. If, however, it be 

 possible to conceive the order, the routine of perceptions 

 as being due to anything on this side of sense-impression, 

 we shall have withdrawn from the beyond the last an- 

 thropomorphical element, and left it that chaos behind 

 sense- impression, whereof to use the word knowledge 

 would be the height of absurdity. 



To positive theology, to revelation, science has no re- 

 joinder. It works in a totally different plane. Only 

 when belief enters the sphere of possible knowledge, the 

 plane of reality, must science sternly remonstrate ; only 

 when belief replaces knowledge as a basis of conduct is 

 science driven to criticise, not the reality, but the morality 

 of belief Quite different, however, is the relation of 

 science to natural theology and metaphysics, when they 

 assert that reason can help us to some knowledge of the 

 supersensuous. Here science is perfectly definite and 

 clear ; natural theology and metaphysics are pseudo- 

 science. The mind is absolutely confined within its 

 nerve-exchange ; beyond the walls of sense-impression it 

 can logically infer nothing. Order and reason, beauty 

 and benevolence, are characteristics and conceptions which 

 we find solely associated with the mind of man, with this 

 side of sense-impressions. Into the chaos beyond sensa- 

 tion we cannot scientifically project them ; we have no 

 ground whatever for asserting that any human conception 

 will suffice to describe what may exist there, for it lies 

 outside the barrier of sense-impressions from which all 

 human conceptions are ultimately drawn. Briefly chaos 

 is all that science can logically assert of the supersensuous 

 — the sphere outside knowledge, outside classification by 

 mental concepts. If the Brahmins believe that the world 

 arose from the instinct of an infinite spider, for so it has 

 been revealed to them, we may wonder what the concep- 

 tions instinct and spider may be in their minds, and re- 



