Page:Vocation of Man (1848).djvu/92

92 I. Consequently, at all times and places the consciousness of existence out of myself must be accompanied by an unobserved consciousness of myself?

Spirit. Just so.

I. The former being determined through the latter,—as it actually is?

Spirit. This is my meaning.

I. Prove this to me, and I shall be satisfied.

Spirit. Dost thou imagine only things in general as placed in space, or each of them individually as occupying a certain portion of space?

I. The latter,—each thing has its determinate size.

Spirit. And do different things occupy the same part of space?

I. By no means; they exclude each other. They are beside, over or under, behind or before, each other;—nearer to me, or further from me.

Spirit. And how dost thou come to this measurement and arrangement of them in space? Is it by sensation?

I. How could that be, since space itself is no sensation?

Spirit. Or intuition?

I. This cannot be. Intuition is immediate and infallible. What is contained in it does not appear as produced, and cannot deceive. But I concern myself to estimate, measure and deliberate upon the size of an object, its distance, its position with respect to other objects; and it is a truth known to every beginner, that we originally see all objects in the same line; that we learn to estimate their greater or lesser distances; that the child attempts to grasp distant objects as if they lay immediately before his eyes; and