3 i4 THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

All the phenomena of nature are alike wonderful, and

amongst its wonders is to be ranged our faculty of evolving,

by abstraction, perceptions of objective, necessary, and self-

evident truths as objective, necessary, and self-evident, when

the requisite means (careful attention, i.e , certain beams of

intellectual light) are brought to bear upon it.

As to the eight perceptions and convictions above enu-

merated, unless we really know and trust them, science is

logically impossible. Without them (as we have seen in

chapter four) it is impossible to have a complete, harmonious,

and stable system of knowledge. If these truths were

denied, or even really doubted, by anyone, he would

necessarily be reduced to a state of mental paralysis and

intellectual inanition. His intellect, deprived of their aid,

would, indeed, not only be paralyzed so that it could no

further advance, but it would be entirely disintegrated like

a world in which the force of gravity had been suddenly

annihilated. But because we must (to be rational) recognize

the self-evidence and absolute certainty of the fundamental

principles of all human knowledge, we must always be

extremely careful to be guilty of no exaggeration as to

the amount of that knowledge, but to keep an open mind

as to possibilities concerning which we have no evidence.

However improbable any such possibilities may be, we must

be scrupulous in not representing any improbability, however

great it may be, as an impossibility.

Thus as to the structure, composition, or nature of the

universe, very divergent conditions are by no means evidently

impossible. It is, of course, evident that there is an in-

telligent energy in the universe, because we are conscious

of what exists in ourselves our own self-conscious intelli-

gence. But it is not impossible (though so improbable that

the mere possibility seems hardly worth mentioning) that

besides intelligent energy, there may be nothing but one

All the phenomena of nature are alike wonderful, and

amongst its wonders is to be ranged our faculty of evolving,

by abstraction, perceptions of objective, necessary, and self-

evident truths as objective, necessary, and self-evident, when

the requisite means (careful attention, i.e , certain beams of

intellectual light) are brought to bear upon it.

As to the eight perceptions and convictions above enu-

merated, unless we really know and trust them, science is

logically impossible. Without them (as we have seen in

chapter four) it is impossible to have a complete, harmonious,

and stable system of knowledge. If these truths were

denied, or even really doubted, by anyone, he would

necessarily be reduced to a state of mental paralysis and

intellectual inanition. His intellect, deprived of their aid,

would, indeed, not only be paralyzed so that it could no

further advance, but it would be entirely disintegrated like

a world in which the force of gravity had been suddenly

annihilated. But because we must (to be rational) recognize

the self-evidence and absolute certainty of the fundamental

principles of all human knowledge, we must always be

extremely careful to be guilty of no exaggeration as to

the amount of that knowledge, but to keep an open mind

as to possibilities concerning which we have no evidence.

However improbable any such possibilities may be, we must

be scrupulous in not representing any improbability, however

great it may be, as an impossibility.

Thus as to the structure, composition, or nature of the

universe, very divergent conditions are by no means evidently

impossible. It is, of course, evident that there is an in-

telligent energy in the universe, because we are conscious

of what exists in ourselves our own self-conscious intelli-

gence. But it is not impossible (though so improbable that

the mere possibility seems hardly worth mentioning) that

besides intelligent energy, there may be nothing but one