30 THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON. 



deserving of that name — it is an attempt to inculcate 

 the truth of such hypotheses, and to "picture" and 

 " visualize," in terms of sense perceptions, matters which 

 reason tells us are altogether beyond the power of sense- 

 perception.* Thus it is deemed especially " scientific " 

 to regard all the phenomena of nature as being essen- 

 tially nothing but matter and motion. Whereas, in trying 

 so to regard them we are but " following the line of least 

 resistance," and yielding to the temptation of dwelling 

 upon those imaginations which experience has made 

 easiest for us. f It is this which causes the mind to take so 

 readily to the idea of motion, and to feel "at home" therein. 

 Hence the favour with which mechanical theories of 

 the universe are accepted, and vibrating molecules and 

 atoms regarded with special favour. A firm faith in 

 "small balls in motion" is deemed a faith which unless 

 a man keep whole and. undefiled he shall without doubt 

 perish everlastingly from the roll of scientific worthies. 

 It is, indeed, a short cut to seeming knowledge when 

 a man can allow his imagination to " visualize " variously 

 moving balls of various sizes, and then with mental satis- 

 faction exclaim, " That is feeling ! " " That is thought ! " 

 Yet to say that the fidelity and affection of the dog, the 

 maternal care of the nesting bird, or the actions of the 

 insect which prepares food it cannot eat for a progeny 

 it will never behold — to say that such things (to say 

 nothing of intellectual conceptions) are but minute 

 motions to be explained by mechanics, is to mock us 

 with unmeaning or delusive phrases. 



* See " On Truth," pp. 89, loi, 127, 128. 

 t Ibid., pp. 193,410,411,443. 



