QUICKER THAN LIGHTNING. 309 



see greater validity than in this affiliation to which I have demurred. 

 One of his arguments is that which Dr. Hodgson has used, and which 

 I have already answered; and I think that the others, when compared 

 with the passages of the " Principles of Psychology " which they con- 

 cern, will not be found adequate. I refer to them here chiefly for the 

 purpose of pointing out that, when he speaks of me as bringing " three 

 arguments against Kant's view," he understates the number. Let me 

 close what I have to say on this disputed question, by quoting the 

 summary of reasons I have given for rejecting the Kantian hypothesis : 



u Kant tells us that Space is the form of all external intuition, which is not 

 true. He tells us that the consciousness of Space continues when the conscious- 

 ness of all things contained in it is suppressed ; which is also not true. From 

 these alleged facts he infers that Space is an a priori form of intuition. I say 

 infers, because this conclusion is not presented in necessary union with the 

 premises, in the same way that the consciousness of duality is necessarily pre- 

 sented along with the consciousness of inequality; but it is a conclusion volun- 

 tarily drawn for the purpose of explaining the alleged facts. And then, that we 

 may accept this conclusion, which is not necessarily presented along with these 

 alleged facts which are not true, we are obliged to affirm several propositions 

 which cannot be rendered into thought. When Space is itself contemplated, 

 we have to conceive it as at once the form of intuition and the matter of intu- 

 ition, which is impossible. We have to unite that which we are conscious of as 

 Space with that which we are conscious of as the ego, and contemplate the one 

 as a property of the other ; which is impossible. We have, at the same time, 

 to disunite that which we are conscious of as Space, from that which we are 

 conscious of as the non-ego, and contemplate th9one as separate from the other; 

 which is also impossible. Further, this hypothesis, that Space is k nothing else ' 

 than a form of intuition belonging wholly to the ego, commits us to one of the 

 two alternatives, that the non-ego is formless, and that its form produces abso- 

 lutely no effect upon the ego — both of which alternatives involve us in impossi- 

 bilities of thought/' — Principles of Psychology, § 399. — Advance Sheets from 

 Fortnightly Review. 



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QUICKER THAN LIGHTNING. 



THE Faithful have a tradition that Mohammed, on one occasion, in 

 starting for heaven, upset a pitcher with his foot : he had ninety 

 thousand interviews with the Most High, and, when he returned, the 

 water was not yet spilled from the pitcher. It may be admitted that 

 this was quick work, and that Mohammed was undoubtedly smart ; but, 

 when it comes to " interviewing," the Arabs must yield to the Yankees. 

 In the laboratory of Columbia College, Prof. Rood has had interviews 

 with one of the messengers of the Most High at a rate that leaves the 

 prophet nowhere. Besides, with all respect to the hundred million 

 believers, the Mussulman story is but a piece of Oriental fancy, while 

 the Christian reports not only what he has actually seen, but can also 



