344 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



That unity of consciousness when viewed from a 

 psychological standpoint may be found to be a 

 mere delusion, owing to the limitations of our 

 faculties and to the fact that its unity is merely 

 apparent, that it is only a number of effects 

 superposed, the apparent unity being the result. 



Many metaphysicians will not admit this, 

 because of the nature which they suppose self- 

 consciousness itself to be. All science can do is 

 to suggest that certain types of aggregation with 

 which consciousness is particularly associated may 

 survive the bodily organism, but from a physical 

 point of view such aggregation will in the course 

 of time, however long that time may be, in turn 

 break up, with the result that we shall find that 



" These our actors, 

 As I foretold you, were all spirits and 

 Are melted into air, into thin air : 

 And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 

 The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 

 The solemn temples, the great globe itself. 

 Yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve 

 And, like this insubstantial pageant faded. 

 Leave not a rack behind." 



" The great globe itself, and all which it inherit, 

 shall dissolve . . . and leave not a rack behind." 

 This is the body and the soul of Hume. But aU 

 "the baseless fabric of this vision" is just what 

 we maintain is a thought, perhaps only a passing 

 thought, in that Mind that Is. The conviction 

 remains that there is something substantial that 

 will outlive it all. This is the question of all 



