142 THE LIGHT OF DAT 



Aubrey de Vere : " Reason knows her own limits. 

 When tte subject matter lies wholly within those 

 limits, as in science, truth is proved by reason ; in 

 matters capable of man's apprehension in part, and 

 yet partially beyond those limits, it is proved io 

 reason. In the former case Reason asserts ; in the 

 latter case she confesses." How plausible this is, 

 and how cleverly it prepares the way for the author- 

 ity of the Catholic church ! It is saying, in effect, 

 that there are certain reasonable things which yet 

 lie outside of the limits of reason, and which reason 

 is to accept without proof. Are there any limits to 

 reason in the sense here implied ? I think not. 

 All reasonable things are to be apprehended by the 

 reason alone. Nothing can be proved to reason but 

 by reason. To say that a reasonable proposition is 

 first apprehended by some faculty besides reason and 

 then brought home to the latter, is like saying that 

 a visible object can be seen by something other than 

 the eye. Microscopes and telescopes aid the eye 

 by multiplying and extending its powers in its own 

 direction ; not by the addition of any new principle 

 of vision. In the same way the discovery of the 

 law of gravitation or the laws of Kepler arms and 

 extends the human reason, of which they are the 

 fruit. Power alone can use power, the eye alone 

 can use the telescope, not the hand or the ear. 

 There are realities of the material world which the 

 eye does not acquaint us with, as sound and odor, 

 for instance, but in its own sphere the eye is not 

 barred, and in its own sphere the reason is not 



