COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



unknown and unperceived^ he resolutely main- 

 tained that what are called the sensible shows 

 of things are in truth the very things them- 

 selves."^ In this mode of statement the antag- 

 onism between Idealism and common sense is 

 forcibly brought out, though the intention of the 

 writer was rather to insist upon their harmony. 

 For as the " very things themselves " which are 

 known and perceived were held by Berkeley, 

 and are still held by psychologists generally, to 

 consist in modifications of our consciousness, it 

 follows that, according to Berkeley, the only 

 real existence is mind with its conscious modi- 

 fications. What common sense affirms is the 

 existence of something independent of our con- 

 sciousness; but this is just what Berkeley de- 

 nied. 



Suppose now we grant, for the sake of the 

 argument, that the only real existence is mind 

 with its conscious modifications. The question 

 at once arises, what is the cause of these modi- 

 fications ? Since consciousness is continually 

 changing its states, and indeed exists only by 

 virtue of a ceaseless change of states, what is it 

 that determines the sequence of states ? If, after 

 the congeries of states of consciousness compos- 

 ing the knowledge that I am putting out my 

 hand in the dark, there supervenes the state of 

 consciousness known as the feeling of resist- 

 * Ferrier, Philosophical Remains ^ vol. ii. p. 297. 

 IIO 



