Continuity 85 



ness and Will are realities of which we are 

 directly aware, just as directly as we are 

 of motion and force, just as clearly as we 

 apprehend the philosophising utterances 

 of an Agnostic. The process of seeing, 

 the plain man does not understand; he 

 does not recognise that it is a method of 

 etherial telegraphy; he knows nothing of 

 the ether and its ripples, nor of the retina 

 and its rods and cones, nor of nerve and 

 brain processes; but he sees and he hears 

 and he touches, and he wills and he thinks 

 and is conscious. This is not an appeal 

 to the mob as against the philosopher; 

 it is appeal to the experience of untold 

 ages as against the studies of a generation. 

 How consciousness became associated 

 with matter, how life exerts guidance 

 over chemical and physical forces, how 

 mechanical motions are translated into 

 sensations, all these things are puzzling, 

 and demand long study. But the fact 

 that these things are so admits of no doubt ; 

 and difficulty of explanation is no argu- 

 ment against them. The blind man 

 restored to sight had no opinion as to 



