AS REGARDS PROTOPLASM, ETC. 01 



ledge wearies when materialism is a horror to our natural 

 hopes to possess in the poetry of ignorance a secret and sacred 

 chamber in which I can shut myself up legitimately to dream ! 

 What a comfort to be able to retire to this my Fetish and strong 

 god to listen to my prayers ! " Where ignorance is bliss, 'twere 

 folly to be wise ; " and surely it is ignorance that is the blissful 

 side here. Sufficiently curious, it is, too, that the Revulsion, to 

 which knowledge is professedly all in all, cannot do, nevertheless, 

 without the refuge of ignorance. How Mr Buckle mouths 

 solemnly roundabout, in that ample, empty, pretentious way of 

 his, dwelling ever on the sacredness of a man's religious con- 

 viction, which is for silence and secrecy alone ! One would think 

 it more natural that we should thank a man for communicating 

 to us that which, as most precious for him, might prove most 

 precious for us too. But no I gabble, chatter as you like about 

 your lower interests, but be absolutely silent about your higher 

 ones ! That is the wisdom of the perfectly admirable Mr Buckle ; 

 and Mr Huxley, as we see, is not without a certain approach to 

 it. Let us listen benevolently, he seems to say, to knowledge 

 in public ; but let us all the more worship ignorance in private ! 

 It is this ignorance we shall now consider in the order of its 

 three forms already named. 



1. What concerns causality may be stated thus : The ma- 

 terial phenomena which constitute knowledge, are commonly 

 regarded as in connection the one with the other ; but into the 

 nature of this connection, into the necessity of this connection, 

 we do not at all see. All that we do see is the fact of invariable 

 association among them. We certainly have grounds for the 

 expectation that this association will not vary ; but these 

 grounds reducing themselves to this, that on the whole, it has 

 not yet varied ; it is impossible for us to say, it can not, or it 

 must not vary. Knowing the fact only, and not its conditioning 

 reason, we are obliged to say in fairness, it may vary. When 

 the sun rises, it is day this day, and any day we ever heard of; 

 but to-morrow it may be night. A stone flung into the air 

 returns to-day, but to-morrow it may not. Cork floats at 

 present, but in the future it may sink. The knife cuts the 

 apple now, but an hour hence the apple may cut the knife. 

 To-day sugar sweetens tea, to-morrow it may salt it. To-day 

 the stick breaks the window, to-morrow the window may break 

 the stick. To-day the gunpowder but repeats the spark, to- 

 morrow it may quench it. To-day the cloak Spends, to-morrow 

 it may swppend, etc., etc. Of course, we have no reason to expect 

 these changes ; but we have no guarantee against them. We 

 do not any day know what " pastures new " await us. And 

 this is good ; for this is philosophy, and in such philosophy we 

 have a checkmate to superstition, we have a checkmate to the 



