i8o JKSSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



16,000 years? Time, then, is relative, too. And 

 though men wonder at him who could " ride upon 

 the wind and travel for many days," he is but a 

 child to one who "roams through the realms of 

 For-Ever." 



This doctrine of " relativity," which is a common- 

 place in Greek as it is in modern philosophy, is 

 made the basis, both in ancient and modern times, 

 of two opposite conclusions. Either it is argued 

 that all sense knowledge is relative, and sense is 

 the only organ of knowledge, therefore real know- 

 ledge is impossible ; or else the relativity of sense 

 knowledge leads men to draw a sharp contrast 

 between sense and reason, and to turn away from 

 the outward in order to listen to the inward voice. 

 The one alternative is scepticism, the other idealism, 

 and, in its later developments, mysticism. In Greek 

 thought the earliest representatives of the former 

 are the Sophists, of the latter Heracleitus. 



There is no doubt to which side of the antithesis 

 Chuang-Tzu belongs. His exposure of false and 

 superficial thinking looks at first like the destruc- 

 tion of knowledge. Even Socrates was called a 

 Sophist because of his destructive criticism and 

 his restless challenging of popular views. But 

 Chuang-Tzu has nothing of the sceptic in him. 

 TT ^ is an idealist and a mystic, with all the idealist's 

 1 of a utilitarian system, and the mystic's 

 ~T a life of mere external activity, even 



