THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 87 



prolonged series of related nervous and muscular changes, 

 gone through in correspondence with the sparrow's chang- 

 ing relations of position, finally succeed when they are pre- 

 cisely adjusted to these changing relations. In the fowler, 

 experience has established a relation between the appear- 

 ance and flight of a hawk and the destruction of other birds, 

 including game ; there is also in him an established relation 

 between those visual impressions answering to a certain dis- 

 tance in space, and the range of his gun ; and he has learned, 

 too, by frequent observation, what relations of position the 

 sights must bear to a point somewhat in advance of the fly- 

 ing bird, before he can fire with success. Similarly if we 

 go back to the manufacture of the gun. By relations of co- 

 existence between colour, density, and place in the earth, a 

 particular mineral is known as one which yields iron; and 

 the obtainment of iron from it, results when certain corre- 

 lated acts of ours, are adjusted to certain correlated affinities 

 displayed by ironstone, coal, and lime, at a high tempera- 

 ture. If we descend yet a step further, and ask a chemist to 

 explain the explosion of gunpowder, or apply to a mathema- 

 tician for a theory of projectiles, we still find that special or 

 general relations of co-existence and sequence between prop- 

 erties, motions, spaces &c., are all they can teach us. And 

 lastly, let it be noted that what we a call truth, guiding us to 

 successful action and the consequent maintenance of life, is 

 simply the accurate correspondence of subjective to objec- 

 tive relations; while error, leading to failure and therefore 

 towards death, is the absence of such accurate correspond- 

 ence. 



If, then, Life in all its manifestations, inclusive of In- 

 telligence in its highest forms, consists in the continuous 

 adjustment of internal relations to external relations, the 

 necessarily relative character of our knowledge becomes ob- 

 vious. The simplest cognition being the establishment of 

 some connexion between subjective states, answering to 

 some connexion between objective agencies; and each sue- 



