ice to the
world in which we live, even when we cannot quite see what is wrong.
Does it not seem certain to science and to common sense that there is
an order of nature in some sense independent of our perceptions, so
that objects may be assumed to exist whether we do or do not perceive
them?

When we read Hume we have a sense that we are robbed of our real
external world; and his account of the mind makes us feel as a badly
tied sheaf of wheat may be conceived to feel--in danger of falling
apart at any moment. Berkeley we unhesitatingly call an _Idealist_,
but whether we shall apply the name to Hume depends upon the extension
we are willing to give to it. His world is a world of what we may
broadly call _ideas_; but the tendencies of his philosophy have led
some to call it a _Skepticism_.

50. THE REVOLT OF "COMMON SENSE."--Hume's reasonings were too important
to be ignored, and his conclusions too unpalatable to satisfy those who
came after him. It seemed necessary to seek a way of escape out of
this world of mere ideas, which appeared to be so unsatisfactory a
world. One of the most famous of such attempts was that made by the
Scotchman Thomas Reid (1710-1796).

At one time Reid regarded himself as the disciple of Berkeley, but the
consequences which Hume deduced from the principles laid down by the
former led Reid to feel that he must build upon some wholly different
foundation. He came to the conclusion that the line of philosophers
from Descartes to Hume had made one capital error in assuming "that
nothing is perceived but what is in the mind that perceives it."

Once admit, says Reid, that the mind perceives nothing save ideas, and
we must also admit that it is impossible to prove the existence either
of an external world or of a mind different from "a bundle of
perceptions." Hence, Reid maintains that we perceive--not infer, but
perceive--_things_ external to the mind. He writes:[2]--

"Let a man press his hand against the table--_he feels it hard_. But
what is the meaning of this? The meaning undoubtedly is, that he hath
a certain feeling of touch, from which he concludes, without any
reasoning, or comparing ideas, that there is something external really
existing, whose parts stick so firmly together that they cannot be
displaced without considerable force.

"There is here a feeling, and a conclusion drawn from it, or some way
suggested by it. In order to compare these, we must view them
separ