FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS OP AGNOSTICISM EXAMINED. 187 



which my reason bears to the existence of the Infinite, and I 

 fail to see that irreconcilable metaphysical exigencies embarrass 

 the logical conception of that existence, or of atomic sim- 

 plicity regarded merely by itself, or of the actual existence 

 of atoms, whether they be atoms relatively to space or not. 

 Why must the human intellect of necessity lose its way in 

 a fog, if it seeks to assure itself that it is not deceived by 

 the consciousness of personality ? And why must it expect 

 to be thus requited for its pains, if once it endeavours, 

 although in a spirit of humility and reverence, to distinguish 

 that orb of Essential Light from which alone it can hope for 

 illumination, health, and energy ? Contradictions it may meet 

 with, through defect of vision ; and it certainly will encountei^ 

 them, if unawares it confuses relations belonging to different 

 categories of thought. These contradictions, however, are 

 the oppositions, not of science, but of " science falsely so 

 called. •*' They are, in the strict sense of the word, imaginary. 

 The charge of being divided against itself Science, truly so 

 called, easily escapes, — not, indeed, by stopping short at pre- 

 dications within the range of sensuous conceptions, but by 

 recognising what they ignore, namely, relations of superiority 

 to the conditions alike of Time and of Space, and regarding 

 these conditions as accidents from the standpoint of Tran- 

 scendental Logic. 



The philosophy I am criticising being sensuous, I do not 

 see how, in treating of Mind, it can cease to be superficial 

 without becoming confused. What has it to tell us about the 

 immediate product of Mind ? How would it have us represent 

 to our intellect a thought? In the conscious subject this is an 

 object of empirical intuition. Does it, then, occupy space ? 

 Has it a length, a bi-eadth, and a thickness, — a measure that 

 may be expressed in fractions, say, of an inch ? There is no 

 one who could help perceiving in a moment that all specula- 

 tions as to its dimensions would be ludicrous. Yet we cannot 

 affirm that it is nothing. It may cause a social earthquake, it 

 may overthrow an empire, it may kindle flames of passion 

 that shall spread far and wide, it may set the world on fire. 

 The energy of gunpowder or of dynamite is insignificant 

 compared with the forces which may thus be let loose through 

 the action of a single mind. Suitable molecular combinations 

 cannot be in themselves the energy of intellect, any more, in 

 fact, than they can constitute the mysterious sympathy which 

 tends to propagate their own vibrations, and to stamp 

 upon such motions specific characteristics, nor can such 

 combinations be the cause by which they are themselves 



