CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS KNOWERS. 21 



annoyed at being called to consider what we regard as 

 settled questions. Again, there is hardly anything 

 which so much affects our actions as the centre of the 

 earth (unless, perhaps, it be that still hotter and more 

 unprofitable spot the centre of the universe), for we 

 are incessantly trying to get as near it as circum- 

 stances will allow, or to avoid getting nearer than is 

 for the time being convenient. Walking, running, 

 standing, sitting, lying, waking, or sleeping, from birth 

 till death it is a paramount object with us ; even after 

 death — if it be not fanciful to say so— it is one of the 

 few things of which what is left of us can still feel the 

 influence; yet what can engross less of our attention 

 than this dark and distant spot so many thousands of 

 miles away ? 



The air we breathe, so long as it is neither too hot 

 nor cold, nor rough, nor full of smoke — that is to say, 

 so long as it is in that state with which we are best 

 acquainted — seldom enters into our thoughts ; yet there 

 is hardly anything with which we are more incessantly 

 occupied night and day. 



Indeed, it is not too much to say that we have no 

 really profound knowledge upon any subject — n? 

 knowledge on the strength of which we are ready to 

 act at all moments unhesitatingly without either pre- 

 paration or after-thought — till we have left off feeling 

 conscious of the possession of such knowledge, and of 

 the grounds on which it rests. A lesson thoroughly 

 learned must be like the air which feels so light, 

 though pressing so heavily against us, because every 

 pore of our skin is saturated, so to speak, with it on 



