THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 87 



prolonged series of related nervous and muscular changes, 

 gone through in correspondence with the sparrow's chang- 

 ing relations of position, finally succeed when they are pre- 

 cisely adjusted to these changing relations. In the fowler, 

 experience has established a relation between the appear- 

 ance and flight of a hawk and the destruction of other birds, 

 including game; there is also in him an established relation 

 between those visual impressions answering to a certain dis- 

 tance in space, and the range of his gun ; and he has learned, 

 too, by frequent observation, what relations of position the 

 sights must bear to a point somewhat in advance of the fly- 

 ing bird, before he can fire with success. Similarly if we 

 go back to the manufacture of the gun. By relations of co- 

 existence between colour, density, and place in the earth, a 

 particular mineral is known as one which yields iron; and 

 the obtainment of iron from it, results when certain corre- 

 lated acts of ours, are adjusted to certain correlated affinities 

 displayed by ironstone, coal, and lime, at a high tempera- 

 ture. If we descend yet a step further, and ask a chemist to 

 explain the explosion of gunpowder, or apply to a mathema- 

 tician for a theory of projectiles, w T e still find that special or 

 general relations of co-existence and sequence between prop- 

 erties, motions, spaces &c, are all they can teach us. And 

 lastly, let it be noted that what we call truth, guiding us to 

 successful action and the consequent maintenance of life, is 

 simply the accurate correspondence of subjective to objec- 

 tive relations ; while error, leading to failure and therefore 

 towards death, is the absence of such accurate correspond- 

 ence. 



If, then, Life in all its manifestations, inclusive of In- 

 telligence in its highest forms, consists in the continuous 

 adjustment of internal relations to external relations, the 

 necessarily relative character of our knowledge becomes ob- 

 vious. The simplest cognition being the establishment of 

 some connexion between subjective states, answering to 

 some connexion between objective agencies; and each sue- 



