78 THE EEV. CANON E. MCCLUEE, M.A., M.E.I.A., ON 



and bad spirits, and their relation to us and influence upon us " 

 (p. 57). " Again, the same principle applies to the revelation of 

 what is ' above ' and ' below ' our present sphere of experience — 

 to heaven and hell " (p. 32). 



The Modernist view of symbolism rests, as we have seen, on 

 the Kantian outlook. 



It may be well in this connection to consider how that out- 

 look is regarded by the most recent scientific investigators. 



Professor Planck, in the Berlin Address (Oct., 1913), already 

 referred to, presents the latest scientific view with regard to the 

 Kantian outlook as contrasted with that of thirty-six years 

 ago. 



" Five and thirty years ago," he said, " Hermann von Helm- 

 holtz stated in this same place that our perceptions can never 

 give us a picture, but at most merely a symbol, of the external 

 world. For we are altogether lacking in a standard which 

 would serve to show any kind of resemblance between the 

 character peculiar to the external impression and the character 

 peculiar to the consciousness to which it gives rise. 



" All conceptions which we may form of the external world 

 are, in the last analysis, reflections merely of our own conscious- 

 ness. Is there any rational sense at all in setting up opposite 

 our self- consciousness a ' Nature in itself independent of the 

 latter ? Are not rather all the so-called ' laws of Nature ' 

 merely at bottom more or less serviceable rules by which we 

 sum up, as accurately and conveniently as we can, the flow of 

 events in our consciousness ? 



" If this were the case," says Professor Planck, " then not 

 only the ordinary judgments of men, but even exact investi- 

 gation of Nature would at all times be in a fundamental 

 error. For it is impossible to deny that the entire development 

 of physical science up to the present aims, as a matter of fact, 

 at as wide and deep a ' separation ' as possible of the pro- 

 cesses of external Nature from those that take place in the 

 world of human consciousness. 



" The escape from this entangling difficulty very soon presents 

 itself if we follow for only a step farther the thought-process 

 involved. 



" Let us assume for the moment that a physical picture of the 

 world has been found which satisfies all the claims which may 

 be made upon it, and thus is capable of exhibiting perfectly 

 accurately all the empirically discovered laws of Nature. In 

 that case the assertion that the picture referred to resembles 

 only after a fashion ' actual ' Nature can in no wise be proved. 



