140 THE SCOPE OF MIND. 



or the Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology of Nervous 

 Systems). 



Our knowledge of Mind (that is of mental phenomena) 

 differs, therefore, altogether from our knowledge of all 

 other phenomena. The very existence of this mysterious 

 and inexplicable class {a), so dissimilar as it seems from 

 everything else in the universe, would have sufficed to 

 separate this branch of knowledge from all others, were it 

 not the fact that, strictly speaking, all knowledge what- 

 soever of any other natural phenomena is still but the 

 expression and summation of our own conscious states — 

 were it not the fact that all other phenomena can only 

 be known in terms of Mind. 



The customary ideal or imaginative embodiment of 

 these subjective states into a non-corporeal or spiritual 

 Ego is, from this point of view, not altogether surprising. 



But if we were to lean implicitly and exclusively upon 

 these direct revelations of Consciousness, we must, as the 

 history of philosophy has shown, inevitably commit our- 

 selves to a system of universal scepticism, needing, as 

 Hume proclaimed, a rejection of all grounds of certainty 

 for our belief in an external world, in body, and, indeed, in 

 Mind as an entity — leaving to each one of us a mere 

 fleeting series of Conscious States as representatives of 

 the totality of existence. 



The absurdity of resting content with such a conclu- 

 sion has been commonly recognized both by philosophers 

 and mankind in general. In fact, we use our Conscious- 

 ness to enable us, in imagination at least, to transcend 

 these direct revelations of Consciousness. They are by 

 each one of us invariably supplemented and modified, 

 where necessary, by what we deem to be ' legitimate 

 inferences' — not only in regard to Mind, apart from the 

 narrow yet all-embracing region of our own subjective 



