n which we rest, we are continually
exerting or resisting the pressure of so-called adhering
masses--resistance-points in one dynamic system of which we are
ourselves a part. Thus it is that in our exertional action we reveal to
our consciousness not only the forms of our own activity but the forms
of the dynamic system which contains and yet transcends the Sensible and
the Ideal.

The theory we have suggested enables us to proceed at once to a
rational explanation of Sensation.

Sensation is _obstructed action_. A detailed consideration of as many as
you like to take of the myriad constituents of our sensible Experience
will continually and without exception confirm this simple fact.

In Nature it is the potent action which is real. It alone can be
directly represented by the activity of Thought. The mere obstruction of
activity is not a real thing, hence the unreal character of Sensation.
Yet the obstruction being an obstruction of the real action of Nature
is, if not real, at least actual and immediate. Nay, its presence in our
Experience, however mutable and unstable it may be, is the only sure
test and guarantee of Reality.

Each of the two leading theories which have dominated speculation
presents one partial aspect of the truth.

The eternal cognisable element of Reality _is_ apprehended, as the
Platonist holds, by the intellect and by the intellect alone. To that
extent the Platonist is right. That cognisable element is Action. But
Action is denoted for us only in the obstructions which it encounters.
These obstructions constitute our World of Sensible Experience, which
is therefore for each of us the sure indicator of the Real. In
recognising this fact the sensationalist is right in his turn.

* * * * *

Not only does the dynamic conception of Nature enable us to account for
Sensation, but it lets us see how the Sensible World becomes a
constituent of Experience. It is by and through its obstructions and
these only that we featurise or denote our Experience. It is by the
breaks, the turnings in the road that we cognise its course. It is by
the line of rocks and breakers that we define the shore. But we must not
mistake the turnings for the roadway nor the shore for the ocean.

It is in and by our activity that we discover this World of sensible
obstructions. The features of the Sensible World correspond therefore to
the laws of our exertional activity, but the corresponde