INTRODUCTION 



present ken, and beyond our power of commu- 

 nication, just because of our present material 

 limitations. Such a world would thus make a 

 conception of immortality a definable possibil- 

 ity. Now, as Fiske reasons, there cannot be 

 the slightest scientific evidence accessible to us, 

 in our present state (wherein by hypothesis we 

 know mind only in connection with matter), 

 regarding the actual existence of such a world 

 of pure mind. On the other hand, the possibil- 

 ity of such a world means that immortality also 

 is possible without any inconsistency with our 

 present knowledge. And as Fiske also insists, 

 our present knowledge furnishes no definite 

 " presumption " against the existence of such an 

 unseen world. " The entire absence of testimony 

 does not raise a negative presumption except 

 in cases where testimony is accessible." Con- 

 sequently the belief in a future life is by such 

 a hypothesis placed beyond the range of scien- 

 tific criticism, although of course in no wise 

 proved. Fiske also suggests that, in regarding 

 the inscrutable Power as " quasi-psychical," as 

 he has done in the " Cosmic Philosophy," he 

 has suggested a hypothesis about the nature 

 of God which could be made to accord with 

 the foregoing hypothesis of the existence of a 

 purely spiritual world. Both God and the Soul 

 are thus existences against which no scientific 

 cxviii 



