194 Traces of Unity in the Phenomena of 



continual clicking, should, instead of wearing out, come 

 to be, not only a better timekeeper, but also a teller 

 of what happens when time ends in the timeless eternal 

 Now. In order to the conception of the idea of eternity, 

 as it seems to me, there must be an intelligence which is 

 in itself eternal, a something which may belong to an 

 eternal entity, but which cannot by any probability be- 

 long to mere temporal brain or body ; and, deal with 

 it as I may, I cannot think otherwise than that this 

 conception of eternity is in itself an argument for sup- 

 posing that in intellect, no less than in memory and 

 imagination and will, there is something which points to 

 trans-corporeity as a paramount reality in man. And as 

 with the idea of eternity, so also with the idea of 

 infinity or any other abstract idea, I cannot find room 

 for that which is universal in that which at best is only 

 partial ; and thus it is, that in order to accommodate 

 these abstract ideas, it is necessary to get outside the 

 brain and outside the body, and to believe that the 

 true sphere of the intelligence is co-extensive with that 

 of the memory and imagination and will. Indeed, to 

 do otherwise, and suppose that an idea like that of God, 

 or eternity, or infinity, can be lodged in a brain-cell, 

 requires, as it seems to me, a far greater stretch of 

 credulity than that which would be needed in order to 

 believe it possible that all the waters of the ocean could 

 be gathered up in the hollow of a cockle-shell. 



Evidence to the same effect is also to be found in 

 the strange way in which, without any help from the 

 senses, one person will often divine the thoughts of another 

 person, or in which the same thought will often occur 

 to two or more persons simultaneously ; but it is not 

 necessary to dwell upon these facts, or to cast about for 

 any others, for enough has been said to show that the 



