178 DESCARTES' DISCOURSE ON METHOD iv 



All I wish to put clearly before your minds thus 

 far, is that Descartes, having commenced by de- 

 claring doubt to be a duty, found certainty in con- 

 sciousness alone; and that the necessary outcome 

 of his views is what may properly be termed Ideal- 

 ism; namely, the doctrine that, whatever the 

 universe may be, all we can know of it is the picture 

 presented to us by consciousness. This picture may 

 be a true likeness though how this can be is in- 

 conceivable ; or it may have no more resemblance 

 to its cause than one of Bach's fugues has to the 

 person who is playing it ; or than a piece of poetry 

 has to the mouth and lips of a reciter. It is 

 enough for all the practical purposes of human 

 existence if we find that our trust in the represen- 

 tations of consciousness is verified by results ; and 

 that, by their help, we are enabled " to walk sure- 

 footedly in this life." 



Thus the method, or path which leads to truth, 

 indicated by Descartes, takes us straight to the 

 Critical Idealism of his great successor Kant. It 

 is that Idealism which declares the ultimate fact 

 of all knowledge to be consciousness, or, in other 

 words, a mental phenomenon ; and therefore 

 affirms the highest of all certainties, and indeed 

 the only absolute certainty, to be the existence of 

 mind. But it is also that Idealism which re- 

 fuses to make any assertions, either positive or 

 negative, as to what lies beyond consciousness. It 

 accuses the subtle Berkeley of stepping beyond 



