COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



consciousness aroused in us by visible or palpa- 

 ble vibrations. Certain subjective experiences 

 of undulatory movement, as when a pebble is 

 dropped into still water, or as when a string is 

 made fast by one end and twitched at the other, 

 beget in us the conception of vibration ; and 

 this conception we transfer in thought to those 

 molecules and atoms of which we believe ma- 

 terial bodies to be constituted. So far, then, 

 from interpreting our feelings of light, heat, and 

 sound in terms of the objective reality, we have 

 merely been interpreting certain states of con- 

 sciousness in terms of other states. Or, to put 

 the same statement into different language, we 

 have regarded the phenomena of sound, heat, 

 light and actinism as adequately explained when 

 we have classified them with certain other phe- 

 nomena of vibratory motion. We merely affirm 

 that a cause which, under a given set of condi- 

 tions, will produce certain states of conscious- 

 ness within us, will, under a different set of 

 conditions, produce certain other states of con- 

 sciousness. Concerning the nature of the cause, 

 whether we call it vibration, or are content to 

 go on calling it heat or light, we affirm nothing, 

 and can know nothing. 



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