COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



To this lucid exposition it is hardly neces- 

 sary to add that the mental compulsion under 

 which we accept mathematical truths is of pre- 

 cisely the same character as that under which we 

 accept physical or chemical truths. Our concep- 

 tion of parallel lines — a conception which the 

 Kantian admits to have been formed by expe- 

 rience — is a conception of lines which do not 

 enclose space. And just as we found that, in 

 order to imagine nitrogen supporting combus- 

 tion, we were obliged to suppress the concep- 

 tion of nitrogen altogether and substitute for it 

 some other conception, we also find that, in 

 order to imagine two parallel lines enclosing a 

 space, we must suppress the conception of par- 

 allel lines altogether, and substitute for it the 

 conception of bent or converging lines. The 

 two cases are exactly similar. In the one case, 

 as in the other, our conceptions are but the re- 

 gistry of our experience, and can therefore be 

 altered only by being temporarily annihilated. 

 Our minds being that which intercourse with 

 the environment — both their own intercourse 

 and that of ancestral minds, as will be shown 

 hereafter — has made them, it follows that our 

 indestructible beliefs must be the registry of 



made to the discussion of Necessity and Contingency, is still 

 more thoroughly and forcibly presented by Mr. Lewes in 

 his new work. Problems of Life and Mind, vol. i. pp. 390- 

 414. 



86 



