SENS A TIONA LISTS. ! 5 7 



upon sensation, as it is understood at this time, that philo- 

 sophy will rest upon fragments of real knowledge cemented 

 together by a vast amount of anything but firmly established 

 information, with no little speculative assertion. Sensational 

 philosophy must, indeed, for a long time to come be 

 founded upon views and opinions, upon beliefs and internal 

 convictions, upon prophetic assurances, and on facts about 

 to be. It can neither be based upon fact or law, nor upon 

 the results of observation or experiment. He who commits 

 himself to such a philosophy, and teaches it as if it had 

 been proved to be true, accepts now upon faith that which 

 by posterity may be proved to be true or demonstrated to 

 be utterly worthless. At present a gulf seems to intervene 

 between things and our organs of sense, and another gulf 

 separates the latter from ourselves. We may know that we 

 exist, and be sure that things around us also exist, but how 

 the apparent hiatus between these things and ourselves is 

 bridged over we have not yet been able to discover. Not 

 only are we ignorant of the bridge that is somehow tra- 

 versed, but we have yet everything to learn concerning the 

 foundations as well as the structure of the piers which sup- 

 port the bridge. 



Although many philosophers may confidently assure us 

 that their doctrine as regards sensation is most reasonable, 

 and will certainly be proved to be correct by posterity, he 

 who uses his reason aright will not be able to accept it, nor 

 feel satisfied that the doubtful and speculative first prin- 

 ciples upon which it is established are likely to be more 

 permanent than shifting quicksands. 



Dr. Stirling speaks of sensationalists as persons " who 

 shut up in the mysticism of an unexplained and unintelli- 



