PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 135 



from the capacity for receiving them. Perceiving and 

 being perceived are as at opposite poles. 



2. The one does not exist because of the existence of 

 the other. The perceiving nature does not by an act 

 of its own will, or the forthputting of its power, call 

 matter or material phenomena into being, and the per- 

 ceived qualities do not create the power of perception. 

 Even materialists cannot affirm that the fact that the one 

 kind of power or qualities existed rendered it necessary 

 that the other also should have being ; that the potencies 

 of matter and of the ether in yielding light, sound, music, 

 tastes, and odours, created the power of perceiving them. 

 They might be the means of developing but not of origin- 

 ating it. It is not, therefore, of necessity that the one 

 has being because of the existence of the other. 



3. From this it inevitably follows that correspondence 

 between them is not of necessity. It is not of necessity 

 that there should be in matter its various characteristics, 

 and side by side with them a perceiving nature, and so 

 it cannot be of necessity that, in the accidental case of 

 two such natures existing, there should be any correspond- 

 ence between them. If they do correspond it must be by 

 chance or design. If each nature finds its exact correla- 

 tive in being and by its side, it is not owing to itself, but 

 to a wonderful coincidence or an intelligent mind. 



4. Their correspondences are superlatively remarkable. 

 The power that lies in material elements to produce in 

 perceiving natures the sensations of light, colour, sound, 

 taste, and smell is not a natural one. It is comparatively 

 natural that molecule should act on molecule, and even 

 that ether motions should pass over into molecules that 

 have certain likenesses in action to itself. But the 

 potencies of making and receiving impressions are much 

 farther from each other than molecules from molecules, 



