202 CREATIVE EVOLUTION [chap. 



admits of degrees, that all sensation is extensive in a certain 

 measure, and that the idea of unextended sensations, 

 artificially localized in space, is a mere view of the mind, 

 suggested by an unconscious metaphysic much more 

 than by psychological observation. 



No doubt we make only the first steps in the direction 

 of the extended, even when we let ourselves go as much 

 as we can. But suppose for a moment that matter con- 

 sists in this very movement pushed further, and that 

 physics is simply psychics inverted. We shall now under- 

 stand why the mind feels at its ease, moves about naturally 

 in space, when matter suggests the more distinct idea of it. 

 This space it already possessed as an implicit idea in its 

 own eventual detention, that is to say, of its own possible 

 extension. The mind finds space in things, but could have 

 got it without them if it had had imagination strong enough 

 to push the inversion of its own natural movement to 

 the end. On the other hand, we are able to explain how 

 matter accentuates still more its materiality, when viewed 

 by the mind. Matter, at first, aided mind to run down its 

 own incline; it gave the impulsion. But, the impulsion 

 once received, mind continues its course. The idea that 

 it forms of pure space is only the schema of the limit at 

 which this movement would end. Once in possession of 

 the form of space, mind uses it like a net with meshes 

 that can be made and unmade at will, which, thrown 

 over matter, divides it as the needs of our action demand. 

 Thus, the space of our geometry and the spatiality of things 

 are mutually engendered by the reciprocal action and 

 reaction of two terms which are essentially the same, but 

 which move each in the direction inverse of the other. 

 Neither is space so foreign to our nature as we imagine, 

 nor is matter as completely extended in space as our 

 senses and intellect represent it. 



