WHAT IS CREATION? 223 



it is remembered that there is no universal agree- 

 ment as to what senses and sensations are. To 

 many they involve mind. Here again the Positivist 

 meets us with the dogmatic declaration that sensa- 

 tion can only be that which is concerned with 

 material things. Seeing, hearing, and so forth, these 

 are the only modes of sensation. The cerebral or 

 nervous modifications, aided by telescope, microscope, 

 chemical reactions or spectroscopic observations, 

 these are the only channels of human knowledge. 

 But this is just what cannot be made out. The 

 mind may be conscious of things that stand in no 

 relation to our material senses. The recent ad- 

 vances in telescopic photography have enabled our 

 astronomers to prove the existence of celestial 

 bodies which never have been and perhaps never 

 may be seen through any telescope. Edison's 

 phonograph will repeat to generations unborn the 

 sound of voices never heard by them. Illustrations 

 are not arguments, of course, but intuition is 

 certainly a medium of consciousness, it may be 

 a sensitive plate on which truths are written, a 

 diaphragm which conveys vibrations to the mind, 

 that otherwise would not have been brought into 

 any relation to it. 



Such intuitions or convictions, it may be said, 

 cannot be trusted. Neither can the sight, nor the 

 ear, nor the brain. Illusions and hallucinations 

 come to every one. No day passes but we are 

 reminded that things are not what they seem. 

 The microscopist has to go through a long ap- 

 prenticeship before he can interpret aright the 



