THE ATTEMPT TO ELIMINATE MIND. 153 



God ? What can approach more nearly to a render- 

 ing of that which cannot he rendered — the idea of an 

 essence omnipresent in all things at all times every- 

 where in sky and earth and sea ; ever changing, yet 

 the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; the ineffable 

 contradiction in terms whose presence none can either 

 ever enter, or ever escape? Or rather, what conven- 

 tion would have been more apt if it had not been lost 

 sight of as a convention and come to be regarded as 

 an idea in actual correspondence with a more or less 

 knowable reality ? A convention was converted into a 

 fetish, and now that its worthlessness as a fetish is being 

 generally felt, its great value as a hieroglyph or con- 

 vention is in danger of being lost sight of. No doubt 

 the psalmist was seeking for Sir William Grove's con- 

 ception, if haply he might feel after it and find it, 

 and assuredly it is not far from every one of us. Bat 

 the course of true philosophy never did run smooth ; 

 no sooner have we fairly grasped the conception of a 

 single eternal and for ever unknowable underlying 

 substance, than we are faced by mind and matter. 

 Long-standing ideas and current language alike lead 

 us to see these as distinct things — mind being still 

 commonly regarded as something that acts on body 

 from without as the wind blows upon a leaf, and as 

 no less an actual entity than the body. Neither body 

 nor mind seems less essential to our existence than the 

 other ; not only do we feel this as regards our own exis- 

 tence, but we feel it also as pervading the whole world 

 of life ; everywhere we see body and mind working 

 together towards results that must be ascribed equally 



