ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 27 



may ask. That its name calls up in us some state of con- 

 sciousness is unquestionable; and if this state of conscious- 

 ness is not a conception, properly so called, what is it ? The 

 answer seems to be this : — We have learnt by indirect meth- 

 ods that the Earth is a sphere; we have formed models ap- 

 proximately representing its shape and the distribution of 

 its parts; generally when the Earth is referred to, we either 

 think of an indefinitely extended mass beneath our feet, or 

 else, leaving out the actual Earth, we think of a body like a 

 terrestrial globe ; but when we seek to imagine the Earth as 

 it really is, we join these two ideas as well as we can — such 

 perception as our eyes give us of the Earth's surface we 

 couple with the conception of a sphere. And thus we form 

 of the Earth, not a conception properly so called, but only a 

 symbolic conception.* 



A large proportion of our conceptions, including all 

 those of much generality, are of this order. Great magni- 

 tudes, great durations, great numbers, are none of them ac- 

 tually conceived, but are all of them conceived more or less 

 symbolically; and so, too, are all those classes of objects of 

 which we predicate some common fact. When mention is 

 made of any individual man, a tolerably complete idea of 

 him is formed. If the family he belongs to be spoken of, 

 probably but a part of it will be represented in thought: 

 under the necessity of attending to that which is said about 

 the family, we realize in imagination only its most important 

 or familiar members, and pass over the rest with a nascent 

 consciousness which we know could, if requisite, be made 

 complete. Should something be remarked of the class, say 

 farmers, to which this family belongs, we neither enumerate 

 in thought all the individuals contained in the class, nor be- 

 lieve that we could do so if required; but we are content 

 with taking some few samples of it, and remembering that 

 these could be indefinitely multiplied. Supposing the sub- 



* Those who may have before met with this term, will perceive that it is 

 here used in quite a different sense. 



