THE DOCTRINE OF ENERGY 107 



thetical system of these general musical laws which 

 would constitute the necessary and universal form 

 of its whole musical experience. To complete the 

 perhaps fantastic analogy we must imagine the 

 world to be one co-ordinated musical system, and 

 our instrument to be endowed with the power of 

 playing upon the other keyboards ; of thence de- 

 riving the suggestion of the distinction between the 

 internal and external impulses which respectively 

 awakened harmonies within itself ; and lastly, of 

 thus at length conceiving in the spirit of science 

 that the necessary and universal laws which it re- 

 cognised as the most subjective and fundamental 

 conditions of its own operation, at the same time 

 regulated the activity of the entire musical universe. 

 How natural it would be for such an intelligent 

 musical instrument, if unhappily endowed with 

 common sense, to believe and assert that the real 

 substance of the universe consisted solely of sounds. 

 Yet how evident would it be to us from our stand- 

 point of more absolute knowledge that the whole 

 orchestra of sounds, although actual and quite 

 distinct from consciousness, was still merely phe- 

 nomenal, and yet withal, in its every expression, 

 revealed the laws and structure of reality of the 

 system of things in themselves a system the 

 reality of which was dissimilar to those appearances. 



