knowledge which can be brought to
bear upon those perceptions, we are forced to postulate two aspects of
the Universe; one of these is what may be called the Visible, Finite,
or Physical, which indeed carries the appearance of Reality to our
limited senses, though it has no real existence for us apart from
those senses, and the other is that which transcends our utmost
conception, which we call the Invisible, the Infinite, or Spiritual.

At the outset of all investigation, we are forced to recognise that
the only way we can approach conception of the Infinite is necessarily
in the form of a negative, the negative applying to those things of
which we have cognisance; we carry our thought to the utmost limit
possible with our present knowledge, and, when we have come to a
standstill, we conceive the Infinite to be not that but something
further on. As our knowledge increases by small steps, that something
further on seems ever to be flying from our grasp by mighty strides,
until we are forced to bow our heads and recognise that we are in the
presence of, though still not in sight of, the Reality. A divine
impulse is ever urging us forward to greater conceptions but
shattering our hopes, and giving us a feeling akin to despair, if we
arrogate to ourselves a greater power of conception than we have
knowledge to sustain; we have to approach the study with, indeed, that
feeling of elation which the consciousness of our origin and destiny
wakes within us, giving us a feeling of certainty that we are capable,
in the hereafter, of attaining to the highest summit of knowledge, but
with that humility, in the present, which makes us acknowledge that he
who knows most knows most how little he knows. In this frame of mind
let us now examine our surroundings.

We are living in a world of continuous and multitudinous changes; in
fact, without change, we could have no cognisance of our surroundings,
we should have no consciousness of living. We have become so
accustomed to certain sensations that we are apt to take them, as
facts, and scoff at the suggestion that they are non-realities. I
propose, however, to show that what we perceive are not Realities, and
true conception of our surroundings depends upon the knowledge which
we can bring to bear to interpret the meaning of these sensations. It
is only in response to our conscientious endeavours to form new
concepts that knowledge is being daily revealed to us; the more we
progress in