The Scientific Method. 65 



standard of truth above mere thought as such, and this, as 

 we all agree, is absurd. Hence I conclude that those ' facts 

 of the universe ' to which you so confidently appeal do not 

 exist at all except as my own thoughts ; and, since I know 

 my own thoughts better than you do or can, I maintain 

 that the ' facts of the universe ' are all on my side and sus- 

 tain my astronomical theory. Wherefore, laughing phi- 

 losophers, I am not ignorant ; and your laughter, like the 

 laughter of fools, is the crackling of thorns under the pot." 



And would this pgean of triumph end the controversy ? 

 Far from it. The critics of our imaginary Jasper, however 

 checked in their mirth by that last unkindest cut of all, 

 could hardly fail to perceive their advantage and close in 

 upon the doughty idealist in some such terms as these : 



" You now explicitly concede that you know no real world 

 external to your own thought in fact, that no such world 

 can possibly exist without upsetting your whole philosophy. 

 In this confession you are either more candid or else more 

 clear-headed than some other philosophers of your tribe. 

 But we now put your candor or your clear-headedness, 

 whichever it may be, to a still severer test. Do you claim 

 that we, too, your critics, have no existence except as your 

 own thoughts or conscious states ? Are we real beings like 

 yourself, or are we mere phantoms of your thought, mere 

 creatures of your imagination, mere things in your dream ? 

 Answer this question frankly, and give a reason for your 

 answer ; for we are only a part of your external world, and, 

 if your philosophy has any coherence with itself, it must 

 treat the question of our reality just as it treats that of the 

 reality of a material world." 



To this crucial question let us imagine that Mr. Jasper 

 gives a bold, logical, and unequivocal reply. If so, he can 

 reply only in these terms : 



" Your challenge, I admit, is a perfectly fair one. It would 

 be unspeakably absurd, because self -evidently contradictory, 

 to say that the whole external world, as I know it, is only 

 my own conscious thoughts or states, and yet to say that 

 you, as I know you, are real beings independent of my con- 

 scious states. Other idealists are all guilty of this absurdity 

 and self-contradiction, but I scorn to be guilty of it myself. 

 Therefore I tell you unflinchingly that you are in no sense 

 real beings outside of my thought. You are only phenomena 

 of my individual consciousness, mere creatures of my own 

 imagination mere things in my own dream. If I argue 



