274 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



used with respect to consciousness, they are mean- 

 ingless. The question is not even fit to be dis- 

 cussed. Beginning and end may be used with 

 regard to parts of consciousness : this pen has a 

 beginning and an end ; this chapter has a beginning 

 and an end : but with regard to consciousness as a 

 whole^ it cannot be used. Unless we can get outside 

 consciousness, which we cannot, and look on it as 

 something separate from ourselves, which we can- 

 not, we cannot legitimately speak of consciousness 

 as having a beginning and end, either in space or 

 time. What is time^ forsooth } — it is merely a form 

 of thought imposed by the limitations of the in- 

 tellect. An infinite mind has " no time, neither 

 shadow of a turning." Time depends on con- 

 secutive mental fields ; but with an infinite field 

 there would be neither past, present, nor future ; for 

 past, present, and future would be consentaneous. 



What is time } Why, the stars we see now may 

 have been extinguished thousands of years ago. 



We cannot talk about the beginning and end of 

 consciousness ; and the mental tendency that makes 

 us do so simply because certain facts seem to show 

 it, is false and mistaken, as the tendency makes us 

 still think of the sun going round the earth. 



The sun certainly seems to go round the earth, 

 and we certainly find it almost impossible to conceive 

 of the earth turning on its axis, and still talk and 



