exhibits proofs of having been arranged with remarkable intelligence. I don't think that I should have any great desire to associate with a philosopher who could see no marks of intelligence about it; for, to speak with perfect candour, I think I should find it impossible to think of such a one respectfully. The man who sees no mark of intelligence in the Solar System, should fix upon the first of April as his jour de l'an. Perhaps there is more hope for an oyster than for such a man.

It may be safely taken, I think, that evidence of Design in anything, necessarily implies that there is a Designer behind it: that is to say, a cause adequate to produce all the effects manifested in that thing.

8. Recapitulation of necessary Truths

Here it may be advisible to give a recapitulation of these necessary truths, which we have considered.

(a) It is necessarily true that space exists; that it is illimitable; that it is indefinitely divisible; that its geometrical properties are unalterable. The contrary is incogitable.

(b) It is necessarily true that time exists. The contrary is incogitable.

(c) The laws of number are necessarily true. The contrary is incogitable.

(d) The laws of Logic (i.e. the formal laws of thought) are necessarily true. The contrary is incogitable.

(e) The laws of Ethics are necessarily true. The contrary is incogitable.

(f) That everything contingent must have a cause, is necessarily true. The contrary is incogitable.

(g) That the mark of purpose or Design in the contingent, necessarily implies intelligence in the Designer, -that the Cause must be adequate to the effects, is necessarily true. The contrary is incogitable.

Such is the voice of our natural intelligence touching these truths,-truths, most of them, of large significance. "If in spite of Nature we resolve to go deeper, and not to trust our faculties without a reason to show that they cannot be fallacious, I am afraid that seeking to become wise and to be as gods, we shall become foolish; and being unsatisfied with the lot of humanity, we shall throw off common sense":-from which folly, may all the Gods deliver us.

9. The Contingent and the Necessary stand upon equally sound Footing

But whilst there are those remarkable differences between Truths necessary and Truths contingent, let it not be imagined for a moment that the psychological evidences of the contingent, if properly interpreted, are less reliable than the psychological evidences of the necessary. In respect of evidence, they stand upon equally sound footing,-namely, the invincible certitude of consciousness; within which and through which, we discriminate in any given truth, the note of necessity or the mark of contingency. Behold your hat and the space occupied by your hat. Your hat is a contingent fact; the space occupied by it is of necessity: yet the evidence. for the existence of the former is as strong, as perfectly reliable, as the evidence for the existence of the space which it occupies. As a matter of fact, you have no more doubt about the actual existence of your hat than you have about the actual existence of the space. We are prepared to stake much more than our last pair of boots. upon the truth of the psychological evidence in both cases. Indeed, it will be found, I think, that apart from its bearing upon, and its incorporation with, the contingent, the necessary is of no account. What is space without What is time without the

the worlds which it contains?

events which happen in it? What are mathematical and arithmetical truths without mathematicians and arithmeticians, and things to measure and number? What is cause unless it be manifested in effects? Above all, what are moral laws, necessary and eternal though they be, without moral beings, i.e. free intelligences, to live under those laws? Thus, necessary truths considered alone, are as dead. They do but rise into living significance when regarded in view of the contingent,-the effected.

This is true. But the moment anything contingent appears, it exists subject to the mensuration and to the rule and governance of necessary truths. It exists under the conditions of space and time; it is under logical, arithmetical and mathematical computation; it exists as an effect; and if it be a moral being, it necessarily exists under and subject to the Law of Right and Wrong-i.e. to the Ethical principle.

CHAPTER VII

EXPLICATION OF EXPERIENCE

Common Sense as a rule of Conduct.-At an early stage of this work, I stated as an irrefragable fact, that the criterion of truth was only to be found in a strict record and interpretation of the deliverances of consciousness. This is indelibly true. Not even the foolish person at continual loggerheads with Common Sense in theory, can altogether break away from it in practice. He can no more break away from it altogether, in practice, than he can break away, in practice, from his own shadow; or reside outside his own skin; or lift the plank upon which his own heavy body may be standing. If the speculative foolish man broke away from Common Sense in practice, as much as he does in theory, it would almost instantly be the death of him—he would arrive at the Pit immediately. No man should adopt any theory, sacred or secular, that will not stand the healthy strain of practice.

The observance of this maxim will enable us to get rid of all the philosophies and theologies extant, except those which are firmly and beneficently fixed upon Common Sense. A Common-Sense theory will always be found to be one that can be profitably reduced to practice, or held with the most profitable results. (Of course, the intelligent reader will understand that I am not speaking of mere cash profits.) But up to this time, some have so completely failed to apprehend this great truth, that they actually talk of the "blank negations of Common Sense." 1 1e.g. Mr. Courtney: Constructive Ethics, p. 209.

They might as well speak of the blank negations of the Moral Law, or of the Multiplication Table, or of toothache. The Common Sense is continually affirming and asserting truths with unanswerable and unquenchable might: therefore the far-reaching, all-permeating significance of the Common-Sense Psychology, so ably, though to some extent defectively, rough - sketched and introduced by that great and ignorantly-abused Philosopher, Thomas Reid.

A Common-Sense theory is one, let it be repeated, which, subjectively, demands the assent of the mind, and which, objectively, may be reduced, or serve as a guide, to profitable practice. "The proof of the pudding lies in the eating of it." Remember that great proverb. All philosophers and theologians should especially remember it. The pudding that is of no avail as healthy food, is no pudding: Take it away. Solomon never wrote a proverb more utterly irrefutable. No man alive can decently hold any doctrine which would render him ridiculous, or land him in a jail or a lunatic asylum if he temerariously attempted to put it in practice. The general realisation of that great truth would obviously destroy at one blow (consummation so devoutly to be wished) all the schemes of materialism, idealism, scepticism, determinism, occultism, obscurantism, and every other anti-Common-Sense theory, sacred or secular, that was ever devised; since none of these anti-CommonSense theories can be reduced to practice, or permitted to serve as guides to practice, without entailing the most tragical and ridiculous consequences. There can be no consistency anywhere but in Reason,-i.e. in Common Sense. Reason demands consistency in all things. If you refuse to listen to the voice of Reason, it must be at the dismal and disastrous expense of becoming a sheer blockhead, or worse, to the full extent of your disobedience. As well fall over a precipice at once, or be