Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/438

428 existence altogether, or deny to it any kind of existence? Certainly they do; and in harmony with the principle from which they start they must do this. The only kind of matter which the analysis of the perception of matter yields, is matter per se. The existence of such matter is, as we have shown, altogether uncountenanced either by consciousness or belief. But there is no other kind of matter in the field. We must, therefore, either believe in the existence of matter per se, or we must believe in the existence of no matter whatever. We do not, and we cannot, believe in the existence of matter per se; therefore we cannot believe in the existence of matter at all. This is not satisfactory, but it is closely consequential.

But why not, it may be said, why not cut the knot, and set the question at rest, by admitting at once that every man does, popularly speaking, believe in the existence of matter, and that he practically walks in the light of that belief during every moment of his life? This observation tempts us into a digression, and we shall yield to the temptation. The problem of perception admits of being treated in three several ways: first, we may ignore it altogether, we may refuse to entertain it at all; or, secondly, we may discuss it in the manner just proposed, we may lay it down as gospel that every man does believe in the existence of matter, and acts at all times upon this conviction, and we may expatiate diffusely over these smooth truths; or, thirdly, we may follow and