Collected Works (Vol. II)

TIME 281 Myst. It may be; in any case I follow knowledge; if my methods be absurd or pernicious, I am but-one of millions in the like strait. Nor dol perceive that any other line of action offers even a remote chance of success. Scept. The problem is perennial. It must be attacked on scientific: lines, and if the pioneers fall,—well, who expects more from a forlorn hope? Time will show. Myst. We have wandered far from this question of time. Scept. Even from that of consciousness; itselfa digression, though a necessary one. Myst. An elusive fellow, this conscious- ness! Is he continuous, you, who declare him permanent? Scept. Do I, indeed? I gave a possible reason for thinking so; but my adhesion does not follow. The lower consciousnesses, which I called (a), are of course rhythmic. The biograph is a sufficient proof of this. ecstatic attains an illumination (so-called) at the expense of sober reason and solid judg- ment.” Mysticus would not, I think, wish to contest this view, but rather would argue that if this be the case, it is at least a choice between two evils. Sober reason and solid judgment offer no prize more desirable than death after a number of years, less or greater, while ecstasy can, if the facts stated in this dialogue are accepted, give the joys of all these years in a moment. But for the sake of argument he would say that there are certainly many men who have practised with success from boyhood, and who still enjoy health and a responsible and difficult position in the world of thinking men. This would suggest the idea that there may be men with special aptitude for, and immunity in greater or less degree against the dangers of, the practice. He would cheerfully admit that the common mystic is an insufferable fool, and that his habits possibly assist the degenerative process. But he would submit that in such cases the brain, such as it is, is not worth protecting. At the same time, it is true, the truest type of Hindu mystic regards the ec- stasy as an obstacle, since its occurrence stops his meditation; and as a temptation, since he is liable to mistake the obstacle for the goal.-—A. C. (See note 53, p. 209.) Myst. Were one needed. Spencer’s gene- ralisation covers this point? Scept. A priori. That the higher (c) are also rhythmic -- for we will have no @ prior here !-—is evident, since the (a@)s are pre- sented by (4) no faster than they come. Even if (a), being fivefold, comes always so fast as to overlap, no multitude of impacts can compose a continuity. Myst. But those reasons for permanence were very strong. Scept. Strong, but overcome. Is it not absurd to represent anything as permanent whose function is rhythmic? Myst. Not necessarily. It is surely pos- sible for a continuous pat of butter to be struck rhythmically, forexample. That it is inert in the intervals is unproved; but if it were, it might still be continuous. That a higher consciousness exists is certain; that it is unknowable is certain, as shown just now, unless, indeed, we can truly unite (c) with itself: z.e., without thereby formula- ting a (a). Scept. But how is that to be done? Myst. Only, if at all, by cutting off (c) from (a): 7.e., by suspending the mechanism (4). Prevent sense-impressions from reach- ing the sensorium, and there will at least be a better chance of examining the interior. You cannot easily investigate a watch while it is going: nor does the reflection of the sun appear in a lake whose surface is con- stantly ruffled by wind and rain, by hail and thunderbolt, by the diving of birds and the falling of rocks. To do this, thus shown to be essential to even the beginning of the true settlement of the time problem, and the solution of the paradoxes it affords —— Scept. How to do this is then a ques- tion not to be settled offhand by our irre- sponsible selves, but one of method and research. Myst. And as such the matter of years. Scept. have long recognised this. That it should be started on a firm basis by re- sponsible scientific men; that it should be placed on equal terms in all respects with