The Interpretation of Experience 6 1 



other side. But let us suppose that the hill-top that we see yon- 

 der be regarded with childish naivete as the end — that there is 

 just jagged skyline and no more. Logically that is quite con- 

 ceivable ; and our actual experience in this case has told us noth- 

 ing that will contradict this supposition. To that, however, he 

 will not agree. Every hill he has yet climbed has been some- 

 thing more substantial than stage property, kept standing by a 

 flimsy framework of cheap wood. And so he climbs this hill 

 and, it may be, finds that he was right — that there is another 

 side, and having thus by an unconscious logical fallacy vindi- 

 cated his pragmatic attitude, he unconsciously confirms himself 

 in his dualism. 



But suppose, through a variation in the course of nature that 

 proves a happy chance for the sake of argument, that the other 

 side of the hill does not slope downward at the expected or ac- 

 customed angle, but leads onward to a level plateau, as sometimes 

 happens. Does that alter the common-sense attitude towaid the 

 hill? Can Pizarro be sure that there will be a Pacific Ocean be- 

 yond the hills? This discovery that the other side of the hill is 

 not a side after all involves some modification in our attitude to 

 hills. It involves some reconstruction in our concept. We are 

 no longer entitled to say that the hill has another side, but, in 

 view of the fact that it may either slope downward, or continue 

 on a level, or slope upward to higher hills hidden from our sight, 

 we must confine our statement to saying that there is " some- 

 thing " beyond. What that may be, what its quality or kind is 

 we know not ; all we know is that it exists ; and if we wish 

 to know more about it than the mere fact of its existence, we 

 must either go and find out ourselves, or else discover its char- 

 acter from some one who has been there and seen for himself. 



Bearing in mind, then, this fact of existence, let us see whether 

 it holds true in other instances. The region beyond the hill 

 exists, and its existence is easy of proof; something beyond the 

 sea existed for Columbus, but colour, shape, and content could 

 only be imperfectly imagined through analogy before the first 

 Spaniard set foot upon the shore. It was only then that this 

 unknown something became defined, had life breathed into it. 

 and took on colour and character. To go farther afield, and to 

 take an instance where our physical limitations prevent us from 

 adding this varied content to the hollow form of existence, let 



