THE NATURE OF REALITY 445 



leaves one to determine through some other avenue what 

 kind of waves these are. 1 It is readily seen, therefore, that 

 the knowledge with which physics deals is inadequate to 

 the understanding of the human spirit in its broader aspects. 

 One could not live in the scientific world of pointer readings; 

 such a realm could be happily inhabited only by a symbol. 2 

 But man is more than a symbol, and many of the aspects of 

 his life and activity take him beyond the outlook of physics. 3 



But where do we get a more specific indication as to the 

 character of this residue of reality ? Here we recognize for 

 the first time that the data upon which the solution to the 

 speculative problem is based are not to be found exclusively 

 in science. Scientific symbols would presumably permit us 

 to infer only a scientific world. But there seem to be two 

 important kinds of knowing which are outside of science. 

 One is the mystic experience. In it "we catch something of 

 the true relation of the world to ourselves — a relation not 

 hinted at in a purely scientific analysis of its content." 4 

 This intimate and personal knowledge will not permit itself 

 to be symbolized or codified; when we attempt such analysis 

 we find that the intimacy is lost. 5 The mystic experience is 

 such as occurs to us under the starry heavens in the moments 

 just before daybreak, or when we pause for a minute on 

 Armistice Day to commemorate those who died in the war, 

 or when we are carried away by a great poem. Such expe- 

 riences give us an insight into something which is not science, 

 and which is incompatible with it if science is presumed to 

 give us a knowledge of the inner nature of things. Yet the 

 mystic experience reveals something which cannot be omitted 

 in a total picture of the world. 



The second sort of knowledge is the knowledge of our- 

 selves. An individual knows that he thinks with a certainty 

 far beyond that which he can attribute to any physical 

 knowledge. This fact of thinking must be investigated. 

 Suppose the physicist undertakes to solve the problem. He 



1 Ibid., p. 320. 3 New Pathways in Science, p. 316. 



2 Nature of the Physical World, p. 324. 4 Nature of the Physical World, p. 320. 



6 Ibid., p. 322. 



