222 THE ESSENCE OF HUMANITY. 



they are in it. Hence, likewise, our human conception of 

 motion. 



In like manner we are compelled by the constitution of 

 our consciousness to conceive of matter as not annihilable. 

 We cannot conceive of matter as being expanded or com- 

 pressed in space to annihilation. 



The irresistible judgment of casuality too is passed by our 

 consciousness, by virtue of the necessity it is under of judging 

 of existence, under the condition of time. 



We cannot think of a thing but as an existence. We 

 cannot think of a thing except under the condition of time ; 

 that is, we are under the necessity of considering it as only a 

 new form of what existed before it. Therefore we cannot 

 think of it as absolutely commencing per sc. We are obliged 

 to conclude with Sir William Hamilton : — " The creation of 

 a world ! this, indeed, is as easily conceived as the creation of 

 an atom. But what is our thought of creation ? It is not a 

 thought of the mere springing of nothing into something. On 

 the contrary, creation is conceived, and is by us conceivable 

 only as the evolution of existence ; from possibility into actu- 

 ality by the fiat of the Deity." 



The human consciousness is therefore self-conscious. By 

 means of this self-conscious property it is constantly compelled 

 to regulate its judgments and beliefs according to certain con- 

 ditions of its own constitution, as these conditions have been 

 imposed upon it by the Creator of the universe ; and which, 

 if adhered to, infallibly lead man to correct results in his in- 

 quiries into those departments of science on which so much 

 of his material welfare depends. We find in this self-con- 

 scious endowment of the human mind that faculty which 

 supplies man with a mind higher than, and entirely distinct 

 from, the instinctive consciousness of the animal. 



In comparing the emotions, appetites, and desires in the 

 human self-conscious constitution with the corresponding 



