17 
seems at times a hindrance rather than a help to attaining the 
conceptions required for the higher, yet it may be, neverthe- 
less, essential to those conceptions, and of great value in their 
development. Although the acutest perception of the objects 
of sense is consistent with the absence of all conception 
of law in nature, and, indeed, what has been called the “ crude 
realism ” of the sense view of nature often seems at variance 
with the scientific, and creates prejudices which Science only 
gradually dispels, yet not only is physical science itself depend- 
ent on the trustworthiness of the senses, so far as their 
powers extend, but it is largely aided by them throughout 
its whole extent, its conclusions being either derived from, 
or verified by, the accurate observation of sensible objects. 
On the other hand, although the conclusions which Science 
draws from the evidence of the senses may differ widely from 
those conceptions which belong to the sense mode of thought, 
which confounds subjective perceptions with objective realities, 
yet it is the very trustworthiness of the evidence which the 
senses afford that enables Science to correct the conclusions 
which the senses suggest.* The relation again which exists 
between the scientific view and the poetic is sufficiently ob- 
vious, though it indicates, as indeed the history of man proves, 
that in order of development the poetic precedes the scientific. 
For while it does not require Science or law for its own ideas, 
it seems doubtful if any scientific conception could be formed 
without the aid of the imagination, which is the active faculty 
in the poetic mode. Indeed, the subject of the use and abuse 
of the imagination in Science is one which might be dis- 
cussed with almost as much profit as that of its use and abuse 
in Religion. For the substitution of the imagination for the 
scientific intuition has been the cause of almost as many 
superstitions in Science as ever have obscured Religion. 
And it might be easily shown that it is to scientific super- 
stitions on the one side, or to religious superstitions on the 
other, that the apparent discrepancies between Science and 
Religion are mainly due. For example, materialism in all 
its forms is nothing else than a superstition, due to the 
imagination attributing to matter properties and qualities 
which Science itself contradicts. 
6. Enough, however, has been said to explain the question 
at issue ; that is, what connection there is between the scien- 
* Mr. Balfour, in his chapter on “ Science as a Logical System,” appears 
to me to have discussed the question to which I here refer somewhat 
illogically. 
VOL. XV. 
C 
