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SYDNEY T. KLEIN, F.L.S., F.E.A.S., ON 



and the imperfection of our knowledge, the concept is not a. 

 true one — with perfect perception and perfect knowledge 

 there can be no such thing as motion, which is the product of 

 time and space. 



Let us now go from our senses of sight to that of touch. 

 If you hold a cannon-ball in your hand, perception by the 

 sense of touch tells you that it is solid and hard, but it is not 

 so in reality except as a concept limited by our finite senses. 

 A fair analogy would be to liken it to a swarm of bees, for we 

 know that it is composed of an immense number of indepen- 

 dent atoms which are incessantly darting about and circling; 

 round each other at an enormous speed, but never touching. 

 If our touch-perception wei-e sensitive enough we should feel those 

 motions and should not have the sensation of a solid ; we have 

 a similar case of hmitation in our other senses. We can hear ' 

 beats up to 15 in a second, but beyond that number they give 

 us the sensation of a continuous sound, as you may see by this 

 instrument (syren). In our sight-perception we also have the 

 same limitation, we can see pulsations of intermittent flashes 

 at the rate of 6 in a second, but beyond that number they give 

 us the sensatiou of a continuous light ; the effect is seen very 

 clearly in making the top of a match red-hot ; when stationary 

 or moved slowly, it is a point of light, but move it quicker and 

 it becomes a line of continuous light. If our sight-perception 

 were sensitive enough we could see the darting about of these 

 atoms, and the cannon-ball would take on the appearance of a. 

 swarm of bees. We are so accustomed to take everything for 

 granted that it may perhaps startle some of you when I ask you 

 to consider whether we can even assert that we have ever seen 

 matter. Let us turn towards a common object in this room. 

 We catch in our eyes the midtitudinous impulses which are 

 reflected from its surfaces under circumstances similar to those 

 in which a cricketer " fields " a ball ; he puts his hands in 

 the way of the moving ball and catches it, and knowing the 

 distance of the batsman he recognises, by the hard impact of 

 the ball, that the batsman has strong muscles, but he can gain 

 thereby no idea as to his character. And so it is with objec- 

 tive intuition ; we direct our eyes towards an object and catch 

 thereby rays of light reflected from that object, at different 

 angles, and by combining all these directions we recognise form 

 and come to the conclusion that we are looking at, say a chair ; 

 the eye also tells us that rays are coming in greater quantity 

 from some parts of it and we know that those parts are polished ; 

 the eye again catches rays giving liigher or lower frequencies of 



