The deliverances of consciousness might be more familiarly called the deliverances of Common Sense or the Dogmas of Nature. It is in vain to contend against any Dogma of Nature. Try, by way of experiment, to lift the chair in which you are sitting! It is feats of this kind that all the Futilitarian philosophers are continually trying to accomplish. Common Sense is as necessary in the highest pursuits as in baking and brewing.-We demand Common Sense (as we have already seen) from every man quoad his particular secular calling-hair-cutting, shaving, tooth-drawing, knifegrinding, engine-driving, road-mending, baking and brewing or whatever kind of business it may be. If he fail in Common Sense, woe to his prospects as a man of business! This is an indubitable fact: no flight of fancy. On what principle, then, are we to absolve philosophers and theologians from the same demand? They cannot be absolved. Such a proposal were utterly absurd. The more sacred the work in hand, the more imperative must be our demand for Common-Sense treatment. Even in crossing a narrow ferry, most persons prefer a sound boat. When they go upon the great Deep, they demand the stoutest timbers. Romanist antipathy to Common Sense.-But what do some of our ecclesiastical brethren say? Actually as follows: Never trust yourself to criticise Catholic religious practices or habits at home or abroad," etc.1 Never 1 Mr. Serjeant Bellasis in "Advice to Children," Memorials, p. 133. In his essay On Liberty, Mr. Mill admirably observes that by following the customary, "the mind itself is bowed to the yoke: even in what people do for pleasure, conformity is the first thing thought of; they like in crowds; they exercise choice only among things commonly done. Peculiarity of taste, eccentricity of conduct, are shunned equally with crimes, until by dint of not following their own nature, they have no nature to follow." P. 36. Such, too, is the long comedy or, rather tragedy of the schools. See a most suggestive article on the Disadvantages of Education, by Otto Eltzbacher in the Nineteenth Century, Feb. 1903, pp. 316, 317, 321, 322. Of course he means ignorant education. criticise! As long as the Romanist stands behind this barrier, he must remain impregnable against the assaults of Common Sense. What advice could Satan give, even to children, more suited to advance his own purposes ? The advice of the man who rationally believes in his doctrine should rather be "criticise it to the very best of your ability." All wisdom, all goodness, invites the closest scrutiny, the keenest criticism; conscious that the more keenly it is regarded, the more beautiful will it appear. It is only the frail, the ugly and the evil that are anxious to escape criticism. "We shall admit no parley," says Mowbray to Westmoreland in the play. The latter replies "That argues but the shame of your offence; A rotten case abides no handling." This explains much of the ecclesiastical fear of criticism. It goes against their passions, their superstitions, their vested interests. They are always glad enough to make use of it when it suits their particular purposes. Let this fact then be duly noted and appraised, that whilst the theologians and philosophers themselves are mighty careful not to commit their own vulgar bodies to the keeping and regimen of persons possessed of no common sense, we yet find them demanding that we shall surrender our intelligence to doctrines opposed to Common Sense, and commit the care of our minds to the nurture of persons possessed of no Common Sense. Their audacity is at once. amazing and ridiculous. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib, but the philosopher too frequently does not recognise, the parson too frequently does not consider, the demands of Common Sense. Absurdity is nothing but opposition to Common Sense.— It should also be noted that absurdity itself is neither more nor less than contrariety to, or disagreement with, the deliverances of Common Sense. The obvious and indisputable is that which immediately commends itself to Common Sense. The sublimest truths and facts of Life and Death come under the cognisance of Common Sense. It needs not a Newton to apprehend the loftiest and most soul-moving principles revealed to human experience. Persons to whom opprobrious terms are commonly applied. -To whom is the term "fool" commonly applied? By universal consent, practically, it is applied to the person at war with Common Sense either in speech or conduct. The same remark applies to the use of its various synonyms -ass, dolt, dunce, dullard, canary-top, merryman, goose, suckling, weakling, pudding-head. All these are terms daily applied to persons speaking and acting in contravention of candles and Common Sense. The fatuous is that which is opposed to Common Sense. The more you oppose yourself to Common Sense the more fatuous do you become. Alas, that so many philosophers and theologians should cultivate sheer fatuity! As surely as Common Sense is the grand faculty or power by which we gauge the long and the short, the broad and the narrow, so surely is it the power or faculty by which we can tell the good and holy, or the vile and base. The known, as we have seen, is that which is already within the grip of consciousness, or Common Sense. The knowable is that which may be brought within the grasp of the same faculties. We have looked at the known. Let us now very briefly consider the knowable. 1. The Knowable in Zoology.-In zoology, for example, nobody thinks we have yet seen all the animals on the face of the earth, nor all the animals in the sea. Explorers and adventurers are continually adding to the numbers in both elements. The day may come when we shall see a stuffed sea-serpent. Microbes, hitherto unknown, are being frequently brought to the Bar of Public Opinion. Some of fell activity have been caught and treated according to their deserts. Many able men are in determined and stern pursuit of other microbes yet uncaught; and we wish them the most abundant success in their hunt. The Nimrod who pursues microbes would be justified in saying, as Cyrus, on one occasion, is reported to have said "Friends, our hunt, if the gods please, will be a noble one." Shooting polar bears may be of no importance as compared with the pursuit of microbes, either in fluids or solids. A great deal more than has been discovered may yet be known as to the features, nature, habitat and habits of many animals. Able workers are continually engaged in this field. As a result of such labours, it is quite conceivable that further classifications, or modifications of existing classifications, may be found necessary. In physiology much has already been found out not only as to the existence, but as to the proximate causes of many activities, e.g. the circulation of the blood. So far as the present doctrine goes, it seems to be admirable and convincing; but it is quite possible that by further careful investigation and observation, physiologists may add to the information already obtained on that subject. Again, it seems, they have obtained much curious and highly interesting information regarding the nervous system. They tell us, for instance, that the brain is furnished with what they discriminate as influential and automatic arcs; that these have, respectively, centrifugal and centripetal fibres which converge to sensory ganglia or nerve centres. They further tell us that "beyond question" the automatic nerve arcs can display no action of themselves, that in themselves they are absolutely inert, and require an external agent to set them in motion -an agent as external as sound is to the ear; and that these automatic arcs can be moved by an electrical stimulus. It is otherwise, apparently, with the influential arcs (which are to be found in the frontal lobes, wherein they localise the seat of intellect), upon which, they say, electrical stimulus produces no motion.1 Now, assuming these statements to be correct, it seems not unreasonable to suppose that physiologists may yet be able to localise, more or less accurately, the nerve centres of the various corporeal senses. It is said that "all muscular contraction is dependent on the agency of one set of nerves, all feeling of muscular contraction on another"; that “from the exclusive paralysis of the former, or the exclusive stupor of the latter, the one function may remain entire whilst the other is abolished."2 Again, there is no reason why great advances should not be made in pathological and medical science; no reason in the nature of things why, for instance, the cause and the cure of consumption should not be found out; or of cancer; or of many other diseases both of man and beast. 2. The Knowable in Botany.-So, in Botany. There is no reason whatever why knowledge should not be greatly increased in every department of that science. 3 · 3. The Knowable in Chemistry. So, in Chemistry. In early ages, as everybody knows, very few elements were discriminated. Gradually the list of elements has been increased. It is now swelled, I suppose, to between sixty and seventy, the latest addition, I believe, being argon; which is now discovered to be a constituent part of the atmosphere. I understand, however, that to this date, its functions have not been discovered; hence the name argon, signifying the lazy, the nothing-doing, the functionless. Now all this is but provisional. Further knowledge may, quite conceivably, be acquired regarding this element, and it may be found to perform very important functions, though these are at present unknown. Indeed chemical science at large, may almost be regarded as provisional. It only deals with contingent truth, as we shall 1 Cook: Monday Lectures (2nd Series), pp. 40-9. 2 Hamilton's Reid, p. 865, note. 3 Written some years ago. |