318 SENSATION AND THE SENSIFEROUS ORGANS 



all that we know about matter is that it is the 

 hypothetical substance of physical phenomena 

 the assumption of the existence of which is as 

 pure a piece of metaphysical speculation as is that 

 of the existence of the substance of mind. 



Our sensations, our pleasures, our pains, and the 

 relations of these, make up the sum total of the 

 elements of positive, unquestionable knowledge. 

 We call a large section of these sensations and 

 their relations matter and motion ; the rest we 

 term mind and thinking ; and experience shows 

 that there is a certain constant order of succession 

 between some of the former and some of the 

 latter. 



This is all that just metaphysical criticism leaves 

 of the idols set up by the spurious metaphysics of 

 vulgar common sense. It is consistent either with 

 pure Materialism, or with pure Idealism, but it is 

 neither. For the Idealist, not content with 

 declaring the truth that our knowledge is limited 

 to facts of consciousness, affirms the wholly un- 

 provable proposition that nothing exists beyond 

 these and the substance of mind. And, on the 

 other hand, the Materialist, holding by the truth 

 that, for anything that appears to the contrary 

 material phenomena are the causes of mental 

 phenomena, asserts his unprovable dogma, that 

 material phenomena and the substance of matter 

 are the sole primary existences. 



