782 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



reality quite different from that of the primordial reality 

 which I have termed the field of consciousness or the 

 firmament of the soul. It forms the external universe 

 to which we belong as very small occupants in the form 

 of our physical bodies ; and the latter appear, if viewed 

 from this new vantage-ground of reality, as the envelopes 

 into which the whole of our primordial mental firmament 

 has shrunk and, as it were, fled out of vision. 



Continuing now on the lines indicated by the analogy 

 with physical astronomy, we may be tempted to look 

 upon the universe contained in space as an interpreta- 

 tion or construction of a certain portion of our pri- 

 mordial self, of our original field of consciousness, of, 

 as it were, the fixed and wandering luminaries in the 

 firmament of our soul. And this interpretation or 

 construction has introduced into our minds a notion of 

 reality and of knowledge quite different from, more 

 precise and useful than, the original spectacle, the con- 

 tinuum of sensations, emotions, and desires, and our 

 simple awareness of their fleeting nature. 



Now, in the same way as gravitational astronomy, 

 of which the science of Kinematics is, as it were, the 

 logical framework, forms the model of all other exact 

 knowledge, occupying the top place in the hierarchy of 

 the sciences, so we may say that the construction of the 

 geometrical world of physical reality, together with 

 logical thought, forms the pattern upon which we are 

 always tempted to model an exploration of the larger 

 field of consciousness, of the background of the firma- 

 ment of the soul, in which the original data of our 

 physical universe are embedded. This larger back- 



