168 RECAPITULATION 



ledge that comes to us through our senses. This 

 simply enables us to catalogue, symbolically, the 

 .effects that these influences produce. The word 

 " ocean " of itself affords no idea of the great 

 waters : it is merely a symbol which stands for 

 them in speech and writing. The impressions 

 which we gather of the ocean by sight, hearing, 

 and touch resemble it no more nearly than does 

 the word : they also are merely symbolic 

 sensations which give us, not veritable pictures, 

 but artificial signs. What can we know of the 

 essential disposition of Nature when her face is 

 shrouded from us ? What should we know of man 

 if we could see nothing but his material accom- 

 plishments his furniture and houses, his roads, 

 railways, and shipping ? The clues which Nature 

 vouchsafes to us are infinitely less instructive, 

 for what we judge to be her accomplishments are 

 but visionary symbols of things which we may 

 never hope to realize. 



' ' i - sisissiii 



We are, then, deceived by our senses. And we 

 are misled by our reason. We watch its pro- 

 cesses in the mirror of our consciousness. They 

 rest entirely upon the assumption that like 

 happenings involve like consequences : we regard 

 this sequence as the result of the abstract pro- 

 perty of cause and effect, and are uneasy in our 

 minds unless we can assign a cause to every 

 happening. It seems particularly necessary to 

 assume that the circumstances upon which our 

 lives and happiness depend are ordered, and not 

 the result of purposeless change, and this assump- 

 tion has influenced the speculations of agnostic 

 philosophy quite as strongly as the meditations 

 of religious feeling. Evolutionists are incessantly 

 engaged in searching for utilities in the colours, 



