xi A different point of view. 211 



discover how thought, and thoughts, have been actu- 

 ally evolved. 



As Pascal said, long before the word Agnostic was 

 invented, absolute consistent doubt is impossible; 

 the constitution of our faculties makes it so. What- 

 ever our theoretical conclusions may be, we cannot be 

 consistent doubters in practice ; we cannot act as if 

 we believed the recollection of the past to be a 

 dream, and the expectation of the future an illusion. 

 But further; mere blank Agnosticism is not only 

 practically impossible, but logically absurd ; it is 

 contradicted, as we shall see farther on, in the very 

 attempt to state it. 



To be an absolute agnostic, it would be necessary 

 to have sensations only, without any consciousness 

 of them ; or, if this is regarded as a contradiction 

 in terms, though I think it is not so, let us say, only 

 sensations which are nothing more than sensations ; 

 sensations without, on the one hand, the power of 

 remembering them, or on the other, the power of 

 perceiving the objects which excite them. All who 

 in any degree admit the truth of Evolution will 

 admit that Sensation is the root and germ out of 

 which Mind is evolved; and probably there are 

 beings having sensations which are nothing more 

 than sensations ; but they exist only among the 

 lower ranks of the animal creation, such as oysters 

 and limpets, which have a nervous system, and 

 probably some dim sensations, but almost certainly 

 no true mental life. They have no power to tran- 



