THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



had not their ancestors from long association learned 

 to use the same symbols for the same ideas. But 

 since this is the case, we have the strongest possible 

 warrant for assuming that the gestures, and actions, 

 and words of others with whom we are associated are 

 prompted by just such ideas as are in our own minds. 



This, however, is only an inference. When you and 

 I touch this table together, I can never know positively 

 that it feels to you as it does to me. But I have the 

 strongest possible inferential warrant for assuming 

 that it does, and the entire structure of our society is 

 based on this assumption. 



Reasoning along lines suggested by such an analysis 

 as this, the idealistic philosophers have developed a 

 theory that nothing exists but mind. " There is no 

 such thing as matter," they declare, "independently 

 of sensation of mind; there is no such thing as color 

 save as the eye interprets certain conditions; similarly 

 there is no sound save for the ears; no odor save for 

 the olfactory organs." This method of reasoning has 

 its allurements, but it lacks the suffrage of common 

 sense, and we need not follow it. The powers of mind 

 are quite wonderful enough without attempting to 

 stretch their bounds. But, on the other hand, we may 

 freely admit the truth of the poet's contention that 

 "There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it 



so." 



On the opposite side of the lists of controversy from 

 the Idealist stands the Materialist, armed with the 

 belief that nothing exists but matter; or for it is 



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