A FORECAST. 



35 



ness which transcend the limit of the bodily senses is a matter of daily 

 experience ; that we perceive and know things which are not conveyed to 

 us by our bodily eyes or heard by our bodily ears is certain ; that there 

 rise in us waves of consciousness from those around us, from the people, 

 the race, to which we belong, is also certain ; may there not then be in 

 us the makings of a perception and knowledge which shall not be relative 

 to this body which is here and now, but which shall be good for all time 

 and everywhere ? Does there not exist in truth as we have already hinted 

 an inner Illumination of which what we call light in the outer world 

 is the partial expression and manifestation by which we can ultimately 

 see things as they are, beholding all creation, the animals, the angles, the 

 plants, the figures of our friends and all the ranks and races of human 

 kind, in their true being and order not by any local act of perception, 

 but by a cosmical intuition and presence, identifying ourselves with what 

 we see ? Does there not exist a perfected sense of Hearing as of the 

 morning-stars singing together an understanding of the words that are 

 spoken all through the universe, the hidden meaning of all things, the 

 word which is creation itself a profound and far pervading sense, of 

 which our ordinary sense of sound is only the first novitiate and initiation? 

 Do we not become aware of an inner sense of Health and of holiness 

 the translation and final outcome of the external sense of taste which has 

 power to determine for us absolutely and without any ado, without argu- 

 ment and without denial, what is good and appropriate to be done or 

 suffered in every case that can arise ? 



And so on ; it is not necessary to say more. If there are such powers 

 in man, then there is indeed an exact science possible. Short of it there 

 is only a temporary and phantom science. "Whatever is known to us 

 by (direct) consciousness," says Stuart Mill in his System of Logic, "is 

 known to us beyond possibility of question ; " what is known by our 

 local and temporary consciousness is known/or the moment beyond possi- 

 bility of question ; what is known by our permanent and universal con- 

 sciousness is permanently known beyond possibility of question. 



