18 MERE THINKING. 



If we do nothing further than think, then how 

 fast soever the thoughts may arise, how profound 

 or acute soever they may he in themselves, and 

 how valuable soever they might be rendered in 

 their applications, if they were rightly applied, 

 they pass into utter oblivion, the oblivion of anni- 

 hilation a waste into which nothing material 

 could pass but by the command of Him who 

 made it. 



And how can it be otherwise ? For what, after 

 all, is the act of thought ? It is not a thing or 

 being of any kind. It is not even a quality or ap- 

 pearance of a thing or being. ' It is a mere state 

 or mode of the mind ; and the mind can no more 

 remember its states than men can build houses 

 without materials. The mental state is a mere 

 relation, and in itself it may be a relation which 

 is altogether impossible in practice, or it may be 

 one which is possible ; for the relation is a parti- 

 cular kind of reference to two or more things ; 

 and it depends on the nature of the things them- 

 selves whether they can or cannot have that relation 

 to each other. The relation of jumping over the 

 moon, or boring through the centre of the earth, 

 comes just as readily to the mind as the relation 

 of stepping from one side of the path to the other, 

 or of boring through a sheet of paper with a pin ; 

 and in as far as the immediate act of the mind is 

 concerned, it has just as much of what we call 

 " power" in the two instances that are first mention- 

 ed, as it has in the other two : and ridiculous as it 

 appears when set down in words, a man has men- 

 tally as much power to stand on the sun, and kick 

 all the planets in turn, or even all at once, as he 

 has --to kick even the smallest pebble out of his 



