CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPACE. 27 



tion from each other. Thus both hands may be used 

 simultaneously to touch an object at two points more than 

 a yard and a half distant from each other upon its surface, 

 and though the intermediate surface of our own bodies be- 

 tween the hands is not in contact with any object, yet Con- 

 sciousness, though without contact, will exist over the whole 

 length of that intermediate portion of our bodies when 

 touch is so exercised. This would seem to show that Con- 

 sciousness may be exerted simultaneously over the whole 

 physical range of our sense of touch, and that, as the whole 

 luminous range of the retina may, by the presence of 

 extended Consciousness, simultaneously see, so the whole 

 physical range of touch may, in like manner, simultaneously 

 feel. But actual contact is not necessary to Consciousness in 

 the faculty of touch. When a blind man raises his two hands 

 before him, and separates them horizontally to a distance 

 greater than the width of his own body without coming in 

 contact with any object, he satisfies himself by Conscious- 

 ness in the faculty of touch, but without any actual touch 

 or contact, that there is sufficient space before him to 

 allow him to advance his body forward without interrup- 

 tion from any object ; and in this case it is by simul- 

 taneous consciousness in both hands, and simultaneous 

 consciousness also of the whole distance between them, 

 that he satisfies himself he may proceed. Actual touch is, 

 therefore, not necessary to Consciousness in the faculty of 

 touch ; and hence Consciousness, that perceptive power of 

 our being by which we become aware -of all things we 

 know, does not absolutely require contact with matter to 

 enable it to discover the existence of reality. It can 

 discover and prove to itself the existence and the reality 

 of space, even though that space were absolutely void of 

 matter. True, it may be said that by extending the 

 hands in space as we have mentioned the blind man uses 

 his hands as a material means of measurement in gauging 



