326 IDEALISM AND COMMON SENSE 



rently unsolvable riddles as that of the existence of the devotional 

 and mathematical faculties. 



549. The moment we begin to discuss mind in any but a very 

 superficial way, we encounter the problem of the connexion be- 

 tween mind and body. Unless I start by dealing with this problem, 

 and making quite clear my own beliefs and the reasons why I 

 hold them, some of my readers will presently raise hands of horror, 

 and declare that I am not scientific, but metaphysical. Probably 

 some of them will do so in any case. For my own part, I propose, 

 in this and the two succeeding chapters, to be much horrified at 

 the metaphysical attitudes of other people. In the end I think 

 I shall be in a position to insist that, if I am metaphysical, 

 I am so only to an extent that every one must be metaphysical. 



550. I am writing on a sheet of paper. For the moment I am 

 thinking of it, in the ' common-sense ' way usual with me and other 

 people, as a real substantial thing, of the existence of which I am 

 aware through my senses. My sight and touch tell me that it is 

 oblong, thin, and smooth. My sight tells me that it is white, and 

 marked in parallel blue lines. Sight, touch, and hearing assure 

 me that it is crisp. Smell informs me that it has a faint, pleasant 

 odour. Taste would inform me that it has a flavour which is not 

 pleasant. Muscular sense declares that it has weight. Thus, in 

 ordinary colloquialism, the sheet has ' caused ' certain sensations 

 in me, by means of which I perceive it, by means of which I gain 

 a perception of it. Memory supplements this information ; I link 

 up the sensations I have just received with other information which 

 I received in the past, and with thoughts concerning it. I recognize 

 this thing which now lies before me as what I have been accustomed 

 to term a sheet of paper. That is, I form a conception of it as a 

 sheet of paper. 



551. But to go deeper, what is the real meaning of the statement 

 that my senses and thoughts have given me information ? Obvi- 

 ously I can be aware of nothing, including my own body and even 

 my mind, except through sensations, recollections, and thoughts, 

 through my feelings. They are the only conceivable means of 

 communication between the universe and that inner essential me 

 which I am accustomed to regard as possessor of mind and body, 

 and the observer of my universe. 1 Now, still using the language 



1 This is not to say that there is any such inner essential " I." There may be. 

 I do not know. I am conscious only of a changing stream of feelings amongst 

 which are feelings by means of which I contemplate (recollect or foreshadow) 

 other feelings which are past or which may arise. I say only that in my everyday 

 thinking I am accustomed, more or less unconsciously, to postulate this being. 



