COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



nerves of the skin, and produce in us the con- 

 sciousness of heat. Vibrations occurring at the 

 rate of 458,000,000,000,000 in a second affect 

 us through the eyes, and produce in us the con- 

 sciousness of red light ; at the rate of 577,000,- 

 000,000,000 in a second, they produce in us 

 the consciousness of green light ; at the rate of 

 727,000,000,000,000 in a second, they produce 

 in us the consciousness of violet light. At still 

 higher rates than this, they cease to affect us 

 through the eyes, and indeed produce in us no 

 definite state of consciousness at all, though 

 they may be remotely concerned in keeping up 

 that vague organic feeUng of bien-etre or plea- 

 surable existence, which is in part due to the 

 indirect effects of the Ritteric portion of the 

 solar rays upon the chemical actions going on 

 throughout our bodies. Here, then, we have 

 one and the same external agency — vibrations 

 among particles of matter — producing in us 

 feelings so different as those of sound, heat, and 

 light. And when it is asked which of these feel- 

 ings the external cause resembles, is not the 

 answer sufficiently obvious that in all probabil- 

 ity it resembles none of them, and is compa- 

 rable with none of them ? May we not clearly 

 see that what appears to us as a series of widely 

 distinguished phenomena may after all corre- 

 spond to a set of objective realities between 

 which there is no such wide distinction? And 

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