xi originally Facts of the Universe. 227 



Space and Time have any actual existence apart from 

 our faculties of perception. So long as the doctrine 

 of Evolution was unknown, and so long as mind and 

 body were supposed to be altogether different though 

 mysteriously united, the question of the objective 

 reality of Space and Time appeared totally insoluble. 

 But we have now learned that Mind is only a name 

 for the sum-total of the sensory and conscious func- 

 tions of the organism ; that the living conscious 

 organism is a part, and in some sense a product, of 

 the universe of matter and force wherein it lives ; 

 and that the mind of man is one of many minds which 

 have originated in the animal creation, though in- 

 comparably the most highly developed of them all. 

 These considerations suggest with a force which to 

 my mind is almost, if not quite, equal to demonstration, 

 that Space and Time are forms of thought because 

 they were originally facts of the universe. When 

 detached portions of the universe are vitalised into 

 animals and acquire consciousness, Space and Time, 

 being facts of the universe, become functions of their 

 consciousness. We have every reason to believe that 

 animals conceive of Time and Space exactly as we 

 do before the power of abstract thought is awakened ; 

 that every animal which is capable of desire and fear 

 knows the difference between the future and the past ; 

 that every beast which can run on the ground or 

 climb a tree, and every bird which can fly forward, 

 steer its flight to right or left, and rise or sink in 

 the air, is practically, though not consciously and 



