190 THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



more than this : that from noon to noon the average 

 human being experiences much the same sequence of 

 sense-impressions, and thus the same space in our concep- 

 tual time-log may be conveniently allotted for their in- 

 scription. Above all, it must not lead us to project the 

 absolute time of conception into a reality of perception ; 

 the blank divisions at the top and bottom of our conceptual 

 time-log are no justification for rhapsodies on past or 

 future eternities of time. Such rhapsodies only, by con- 

 fusing conception and perception, can attribute to these 

 eternities meaning in the actual world of phenomena, in 

 the field of sense-impression. 



S 14. — Concluding Remarks on Space and Time 



The reader who has recognised in perceptual space and 

 time the modes in which we distinguish groups of sense- 

 impressions, who has grasped that infinities and eternities 

 are products of conception, not actualities of the real world 

 of phenomena, will be prepared to admit the important 

 conclusions which flow from these views for both practical 

 and mental life. If the individual carries space and time 

 about with him as his modes of perception, we see that 

 the field of miracle is transferred from an external 

 mechanical world of phenomena to the individual percep- 

 tive faculty. The knowledge of this in itself is no small 

 gain to clearing up our ideas with regard to such recrudes- 

 cences of superstition as spiritualism and theosophy. If 

 space and time are to be annihilated, it cannot be done 

 once for all, but it must be done for each individual 

 perceptive faculty. When, for example, theosophists tell 

 us that, putting aside the bondages of space and time, 

 they can communicate with adepts from Central Asia in 

 London drawing-rooms, they are really saying that their 

 own perceptive faculties can distinguish groups of sense- 

 impressions in other than those modes of space and time 

 which are characteristic of the normal perceptive faculty. 

 They have not abrogated our space and time, only their 

 own. They are merely declaring that their modes of 



