PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 145 



thousands, not hundreds, of billions, or even any numbers 

 beyond. They might not have reached three hundred and 

 ninety-five billions, nor three hundred, nor one billion. 

 In like manner, atoms and molecules might have existed, 

 and no motions in them, or motions far from any relation- 

 ship to those of the ether, far from such a relationship as 

 to enable them to give birth to the motions that produce 

 light and colour. In short, there might have been 

 neither ether nor matter standing in any relationship to 

 each other, or to the perceiving nature. It might have 

 been impossible for the three to have been found in a 

 condition fit for harmonious interaction. There is no 

 limit to the imaginings of the different ranges which the 

 perceiving and perceived natures might have occupied, 

 and no limit to the imaginings of the variety of condi- 

 tions necessary to their being adapted to each other ; and 

 so there is no limit to the number of chances against the 

 three meeting for light-giving. That there are not merely 

 two but three entities involved adds incalculably to the 

 force of the argument. In like manner, the motions of 

 matter might have been out of all relationship to the 

 capacity for perceiving sound. They might easily have 

 been of a velocity too small or too great. They might 

 have been the fewest in number or the largest. All 

 matter might in like manner have been out of relationship 

 to the perceptive powers of taste, smell, and touch. In 

 short, the two natures might in their capacities and 

 motions have been in an infinite number of ranges small 

 or large, and at any measure of distance from each other. 

 That the two are within the same range, that they are so 

 in so vast a multitude of relationships, that there are in 

 so many kinds of material molecules, and in so great a 

 multitude of each kind, and in the ether, so unex- 

 haustible a number of ways in which they can touch 

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