38 LESSONS FBOM NATUKE. [CHAP. II. 



nation. It is surely somewhat surprising that Mr. Spencer 

 does not discuss the two meanings of the word inconceivable 

 pointed out long ago in the controversy between Mill and 

 Whewell, and fully admitted by Mr. G. H. Lewes, who 

 observes:* &quot;That which is unpicturable maybe conceivable; 

 and the abstraction which is impossible to .... imagination 

 is easy to conception.&quot; The word &quot; inconceivable&quot; is some 

 times taken to denote simply that which the mind cannot 

 picture in a distinct mental image. At other times it is 

 made use of to signify that which is &quot;unintelligible&quot; or 

 &quot;unthinkable.&quot; But a great number of things which 

 cannot be pictured to the imagination can most certainly 

 be thought and understood, and none of those who uphold 

 the validity of our intuitions of objective necessary truth pre 

 tend that that which cannot be imagined is necessarily untrue. 

 Fortunately, in this matter of the declarations of conscious 

 ness, the appeal is to facts and experiments facts that can 

 be observed, experiments that can be carried on by every one 

 a little advanced in philosophy, and therefore possessing that 

 which is a necessary condition of such advance, namely, a 

 habit of careful introspection. I venture confidently to 

 affirm that we have as certain evidence for this distinction of 

 kind between our own thoughts as we have for the very being 

 of those thoughts themselves. The existence of this distinc 

 tion as a fact is incontrovertible, and the fact of this declara 

 tion of consciousness should be first carefully noted; its 

 validity may be considered afterwards. 



The first class of Mr. Spencer s inconceivable propositions 

 (our simply unimaginable ones) are, or, for all we see, may 

 be, the mere results of mental impotence; they are but 

 negatively and passively inconceivable. The second class of 

 inconceivable propositions (our necessarily false ones) are 

 those which are positively and actively inconceivable, because 

 they are clearly known by the mind to be absolutely and 

 universally impossible. At present we have not to consider 



* Problems of Life and Mind, vol. i, p. 420. 



