32 HUMANISM 



a more real world, should still cling to the independently 

 objective reality of the world you have now quitted for 

 more than 2000 years. Do you perceive it now ? 



No, but I did, and it may still be a part of the world 

 which I no longer perceive. 



Where then is it with reference to your present world ? 

 Is it north, south, east, or west ? Or is it not in the same 

 space with it at all ? 



Still it is in space. And I still perceive a world. 



So does every one who dreams. Your perceiving it, 

 therefore, is no proof that it is ultimately real. And if 

 you had entirely forgotten what you experienced formerly, 

 would you even be able to assert that it once was real for 

 you ? Would not its reality have become like unto the 

 reality of a forgotten dream ? How can you venture, 

 then, to attribute to all beings perception of one and the 

 same world ? 



Perhaps I was mistaken about the world in which I 

 then lived. But this present world at least is real, and 

 seems to me fair enough to be worthy of being perceived 

 even by the gods. 



It is real no doubt for you, and for me also, while I 

 am in it. But you may remember that what started the 

 argument was the difficulty I had in convincing the 

 denizens of your former world of the superior reality of 

 this in which we now are. And besides, how do you 

 know that beings still higher than you, if you do not 

 resent my mentioning such, may not enjoy the contempla 

 tion of worlds vastly more perfect even than yours ? 



Still this process cannot go on to infinity. You must 

 at last conceive a world of ultimate reality, the contempla 

 tion of which by the supreme being would be absolute 

 truth. 



No doubt ; you are speaking of what Plato would 

 call the world of Ideas. But still that does not affect the 

 argument. The world and the truth and the good we 

 were discussing are those relative to us? 



I see that I was wrong in basing my argument for 

 absolute truth on the perceptions of the senses. But of 



