CHAPTER II. 



FIRST TRUTHS. 



&quot; Knowledge must be based on the study of mental facts and on 

 undemonstrable truths which declare their own absolute certainty, and 

 are seen by the mind to be positively and necessarily true.&quot; 



THE first lesson we have gathered from nature, one which 

 is certain and indisputable, is the fact of our own Self . know . 

 continued personal existence revealed to us by ^^n h ^ e 

 consciousness and by memory. This certainty, t a lfmy with-&quot; 

 though absolute, rests upon an immediately known out P roof - 

 fact, and not upon evidence ; neither is it capable of proof, 

 being above and beyond all proof of whatever kind. It 

 is thus manifest that we may have absolute certainty without 

 proof, and a moment s reflection suffices to show that there 

 must be truths of this order truths as certain as they are 

 undemonstrable. For demonstration can but proceed by 

 proving some propositions by the help of others which will 

 not be denied ; and this process, unless it is to go on for 

 ever, must stop at truths which can be at once seen to be 

 self-evident and indisputable. If no such truths can possibly 

 be found, then the mind can have no secure basis whatever 

 upon which to rear a fabric of reasoned and coherent truth. 



And here it might be expected that in gathering lessons 

 from nature our course should be to start from a Reasons why 

 consideration of external objects, proceeding from g^ s tuh d a be &quot; 

 the lower and more simple to the higher and more ^&quot;nd before 

 complex, till we reach, at last, the highest nature temai nl- ex 

 which our senses make known to us, namely, our 



