THE VISIBLE IS ONLY ITS SHADOW. 



67 



oeption, which we call the invisible, infinite or spiritual. We 

 cannot conceive beyond Lhe finite so long as we are conscious 

 of living under present conditions. With every act of perception 

 by our senses, or conception by our intellect we have therefore 

 not only knowledge of the visible or finite, as far as Intellection 

 can carry us, but we become at the same moment aware, by 

 intuition, of the invisible, infinite beyond. So by the use of 

 Introspection, as soon as we have gained a knowledge of our 

 finite physical self with, a clear comprehension of its limited 

 modes of thought, we at once become aware of the Infinite 

 Spiritual part of us transcending it. The spiritual part of us is 

 our real personality, of which the physical self is only the out- 

 ward manifestation or shadow on our plane of consciousness. 



Let me suggest two psychological experiments which will 

 prove to anybody, who will earnestly try them, how inadequate 

 the intellect is for dealing with any subject beyond its narrow 

 finite horizon : 



Try persistently, say, for five minutes, to grasp the idea of the 

 infinite extension of space ; you won't be able to grasp it, but I 

 want you to try the experiment. The longer you persist and try 

 to master it, in the endeavour to get there in thought, the more 

 impossible it becomes, until you have to give it up and acknow- 

 ledge that it is absolutely inconceivable that space can extend 

 without limit; but having done this you find that it is quite as 

 inconceivable, and perhaps even more so, to think that space 

 could be limited ; there would always be the question what is 

 beyond, and yet the Intellect insists that one of these two alter- 

 natives must be true, though it cannot conceive how either can 

 be possible. 



Again try persistently to master the idea of time duration. In 

 our experiment on space, when we had reached a point where 

 we began to gasp with bewilderment, we had a feeling of relief 

 at the thought that after all we could, at the worst, stop our flight 

 on our journey outwards into the vasty deep; we could as it were 

 ignore the terrifying idea of unending extension; but in the 

 experiment on time our consciousness cannot apply that anaes- 

 thetic to its bewildered brain ; time for us is irresistibly rushing 

 on and carrying us with it; we are helpless, we cannot call a 

 halt and say we will go no further. Our bewildered mind may 

 try to force the thought that surely there must be an end some- 

 time; but the intellect, which is quite incapable of dealing with 

 such a question, tells us that Time can never cease. 



To those who are dominated by the world of appearances and 

 look outwardly upon time and space and therefore believe them 

 to be realities, such experiments, if persisted in for any length 

 of time, would tend dangerously towards insanity; but relief 

 comes immediately when, by looking inwardly, we realise that 



