96 HUME III 



of things being merely the picture produced l?y 

 the evolution of the phenomena of consciousness. 

 For any demonstration that can be given to the 

 contrary effect, the " collection of perceptions " 

 which makes up our consciousness maybe an orderly 

 phantasmagoria generated by the Ego, unfolding 

 its successive scenes on the background of the 

 abyss of nothingness ; as a firework, which is but 

 cunningly arranged combustibles, grows from a 

 spark into a coruscation, and from a coruscation 

 into figures, and words, and cascades of devouring 

 fire, and then vanishes into the darkness of the 

 night. 



On the other hand, it must no less readily be 

 allowed that, for anything that can be proved to 

 the contrary, there may be a real something which 

 is the cause of all our impressions ; that sensa- 

 tions, though not likenesses, are symbols of that 

 something ; and that the part of that something, 

 which we call the nervous system, is an apparatus 

 for supplying us with a sort of algebra of fact, 

 based on those symbols. A brain may be the 

 machinery by which the material universe 

 becomes conscious of itself. But it is important 

 to notice that, even if this conception of the 

 universe and of the relation of consciousness to its 

 other components should be true, we should, 

 nevertheless, be still bound by the limits of 

 thought, still unable to refute the arguments of 

 pure idealism. The more completely the material- 



