96 Presidential Address 



worked by us, is the whole of our exist- 

 ence; and that we are essentially nothing 

 but the machinery by which we are 

 known. We find the machinery utilising 

 nothing but well-known forms of energy, 

 and subject to all the laws of chemistry 

 and physics, it would be strange if it 

 were not so, and from that fact we try to 

 draw valid deductions as to our nature, 

 and as to the impossibility of our exist- 

 ing apart from and independent of these 

 temporary modes of material activity and 

 manifestation. We so uniformly employ 

 them, in our present circumstances, that 

 we should be on our guard against de- 

 ception due to this very uniformity. Ma- 

 terial bodies are all that we have any 

 control over, are all that we are experi- 

 mentally aware of; anything that we 

 can do with these is open to us; any con- 

 clusions we can draw about them may be 

 legitimate and true. But to step outside 

 their province and to deny the existence 

 of any other region because we have no 

 sense organ for its appreciation, or be- 

 cause (like the Ether) it is too uniformly 



