PHENOMENON AND NOUMENON 



tension in the active arm. Which of these sen- 

 sations does the mechanical force in action re- 

 semble, qualitatively or quantitatively ? Clearly, 

 it cannot be assimilated to one more than an- 

 other of them ; and hence must in itself be some- 

 thing alien from, or unrepresentable by, any 

 feeling/* ' 



This disposes of Reid, who was indeed but an 

 indifferent psychologist, and rested his refuta- 

 tion of Berkeley chiefly upon misplaced ridicule 

 and equally misplaced appeals to common sense. 

 He tauntingly asked why the great idealist did 

 not illustrate his doctrine by walking over a 

 precipice or thrusting his head against a lamp- 

 post, as if Berkeley had ever denied that such 

 a congeries of phenomenal actions would be 

 followed by disastrous phenomenal effects. No 

 wonder that a philosophy founded upon such 

 flimsy psychological analysis should never have 

 obtained wide acceptance among trained think- 

 ers ; and no wonder that Idealism should still 

 by many persons be considered as unrefuted. 



It is by making the unphilosophic inference 

 that because we cannot know the objective re- 

 ality therefore there exists none, that Idealism 

 destroys itself. As long as we admit that the 

 possibilities of things are limited by the possi- 

 bilities of thought, we cannot overturn IdeaHsm : 

 we must go on and grant that because we can 

 ^ Spencer, Prmdp/es of Psycho logy, vol. i. p. 206 [§ 86]. 



115 



