METAPHYSICS 261 



Dolbear is so far convinced that he says : " It is either 

 that theory or nothing, there is no other that has any 

 degree of probability at all "} 



If matter be really composed of vortex-rings out of 

 ether, then it might be called '' etherial " instead of 

 "material" ; just as we speak of a "copper" because it 

 is made of copper ; but both words are necessary ; for it 

 is not usual for us to call any manufactured article by 

 the name of the material of which it is composed ; but 

 the very fact of there being any visual perceptions at all 

 possible, implies something external to the eye, corre- 

 sponding to these perceptions of the mind. All that 

 reaches the retina are vibrations, which, the reader 

 will remember, collectively make a minute inve7'ted 

 picture on the sensitive membrane of the retina. This 

 is mysteriously present to consciousness as an erect 

 picture, not microscopically small, but in full dimensions 

 of the objective source of light as a landscape. 



Defects of structure make the picture sometimes 

 untrustworthy or mental hallucinations create non-ex- 

 istent, but apparently true, external objects. But in- 

 ductive evidence based on sound conditions of eyes, 

 nerves and brains of the whole human race, furnished 

 by the widest experience of ourselves and others, establish 

 the truth of an external world beyond all question ; cor- 

 responding to what our "visual perceptions" mentally 

 realise. 



As long as a man is a compound being of matter 

 and mind, not to add a bundle of physical forces, it seems 

 to one who is no metaphysician somewhat absurd to 

 confound these two things, and ignore one at the 

 expense of the other. 



^ Op. cit., p. 43 ; see above, Part I., chap. iv. 



