THE BELFAST ADDRESS. 195 



really conscious of is, not that you are there, but that 

 the nerves of my hand have undergone a change. All 

 we hear, and see, and touch, and taste, and smell, are, 

 it would be urged, mere variations of our own condition, 

 beyond which, even to the extent of a hair's breadth, 

 we cannot go. Tha^ anjthin^_assw<eiing_to_pur im- 

 pressions exists outside of ourselves is not a fact, but 

 an inference, to which all validity would be denied by 

 an idealist like Berkeley, or by a sceptic like Hume. 

 Mr. Spencer takes another line. With him, as with 

 the uneducated man, there is no doubt or question as 

 to the existence of an external world. But he differs 

 from the uneducated, who think that the world really is 

 what consciousness represents it to be. Our states of 

 consciousness are mere symbols of an outside entity 

 which produces them and determines the order of their 

 succession, but the real nature of which we can never 

 know. 1 In fact, the whole process of evolution is the 

 manifestation of a Power absolutely inscrutable to the 

 intellect of man. As little in our day as in the days of 

 Job can man by searching find this Power out. Con- 



1 In a paper, at once popular and profound, entitled 'Recent 

 Progress in the Theory of Vision,' contained in the volume of 

 lectures by Helmholtz, published by Longmans, this symbolism of 

 our states of consciousness is also dwelt upon. The impressions of 

 sense are the mere signs of external things. In this paper Helmholtz 

 contends strongly against the view that the consctousness of space 

 is inborn ; and he evidently doubts the power of the chick to pick 

 up grains of corn without preliminary lessons. On this point, he 

 says, further experiments are needed. Such experiments have been 

 since made by Mr. Spalding, aided, I believe, in some of his 

 observations by the accomplished and deeply lamented Lady 

 Amberly ; and they seem to prove conclusively that the chick does 

 not need a single moment's tuition to enable it to stand, run, govern 

 the muscles of its eyes, and peck. Helmholtz, however, is con- 

 tending against the notion of pre-established harmony ; and I am 

 not aware of his views as to the organisation of experiences of race 

 or breed. 



o 2 



