xi the Veracity of Memory. 213 



show that the fabric of knowledge and thought is 

 constructed out of the materials of sensation by the 

 agency of the association of ideas; and the aim of 

 his philosophy was to minimise the element of faith 

 in thought. Butler, on the contrary, though by no 

 means a transcendentalist, never lost sight of the 

 element of faith in our thought and knowledge ; 

 and, so far as his purpose was properly philosophical, 

 it was to insist on the importance of this element. 



It is true that Memory, in its most rudimentary 

 form, is nothing more than a continued sensation, 

 such as the sensation of light continuing after a flash 

 of light has passed. But in its developed form, 

 Memory implies the belief in a past which was once 

 present but is so no longer, and in a self which is 

 permanent through past and present sensations. 

 Agnosticism, pure, simple, and consistent, would 

 require this to be denied ; would deny, or leave in 

 doubt, whether the permanent element in the self is 

 anything but an illusion ; whether the past is any- 

 thing but a dream, and whether the future may be 

 reasonably expected to arrive. But it is not possible 

 to doubt the truth of any of these ; and in the case 

 of the reality of the self of its personal identity 

 and unity as opposed to its manifold states of feeling 

 the certainty is not only instinctive but logical ; 

 that is to say, we believe it not only as we believe 

 in the reality of Time and Space, because belief in 

 their reality is part of our constitution ; but also 

 because the question of the reality of the self cannot 



