Creation. 277 



becoming non-existent, is immediately consequent on 

 the nature of thought. Thought consists in the estab- 

 lishment of relations. There can be no relation estab- 

 lished, and therefore, no thought framed, when one of 

 the related terms is absent from consciousness. Hence 

 it is impossible to think of something becoming no- 

 thing, for the same reason that it is impossible to 

 think of nothing becoming something the reason, 

 namely, that nothing cannot become an object of 

 consciousness. The annihilation of matter is unthink- 

 able for the same reason that the creation of matter 

 is unthinkable."* Again, " Those who entertain the 

 proposition that each kind of organism results from 

 a divine interposition, do so because they refrain from 

 translating words into thoughts. The case is one of 

 those where men do not really believe, but rather 

 believe they believe. For belief, properly so called, 

 implies a mental representation of the thing believed ; 

 and no such mental representation is here possible.''^ 



Lange is still more emphatic. " The creation of the 

 world from nothing is at least a clear and honest 

 theory. It contains so open and direct a contradic- 

 tion of all thought, that all weaker and more reserved 

 contradictions must feel ashamed beside it."* 



Creation is, then, alleged to be impossible to thought 

 :( a mental representation of the thing " is impossible 



* First Principles, 53. t Biology, Vol. I., 112. 



% History of Materialism ,*Vol. I., Second Section, Chapter I. 



