286 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



may be Irish, its absoluteness is relative to our organ- 

 ization and to reality as we perceive it. We cannot 

 perceive anything fuller, more absolute — until perhaps 

 one day, with the growth of our minds, we come to 

 have some still richer and more complete experience. 

 As William James was so fond of reminding the world, 

 we have no right to assume that our minds are, much 

 less that they must be, the highest type of mind realized 

 in the universe. Our domestic animals, could they 

 reflect and reason, would have as little right to make 

 the assumption of their own minds. Even if they 

 did begin to think about their masters' minds, their 

 difficulty would be that they had only their own 

 mental standards with which to measure. So we 

 must find it as hard to imagine new mental possi- 

 bilities as it is for a blind man to think of colour or 

 a cat of philosophy. 



What is more, owing to our power of framing 

 general concepts and ideals, and of accumulating past 

 and future in our present, we can focus a vast deal 

 to one point. In such experiences, whether they 

 come through religion, or love, or art, we may say 

 that although we are but a system of relations, we 

 touch the Absolute — although we are mortal, we 

 mount to the Eternal for a moment. Only, to 

 guard against error, we must remember that it is 

 obviously not in reality the Absolute or the Eternal 

 that we attain to, but only the nearest approximation 

 to them of which we are capable. 



