Now, if we are really four-dimensional, by going through those acts which correspond to a four-dimensional experience (so far as we can), we shall obtain an apprehension of four-dimensional existence--not with the outward eye, but essentially with the mind. And after a number of years of experiment which were entirely nugatory, I can now lay it down as a verifiable fact, that by taking the proper steps we can feel four-dimensional existence, that the human being somehow, and in some way, is not simply a three-dimensional being--in what way it is the province of science to discover. All that I shall do here is, to put forward certain suppositions which, in an arbitrary and forced manner, give an outline of the relation of our body to four-dimensional existence, and show how in our minds we have faculties by which we recognise it. CHAPTER VII. SELF ELEMENTS IN OUR CONSCIOUSNESS. It is often taken for granted that our consciousness of ourselves and of our own feelings has a sort of direct and absolute value. It is supposed to afford a testimony which does not require to be sifted like our consciousness of external events. But in reality it needs far more criticism to be applied to it than any other mode of apprehension. To a certain degree we can sift our experience of the external world, and divide it into two portions. We can determine the self elements and the realities. But with regard to our own nature and emotions, the discovery which makes a science possible has yet to be made. There are certain indications, however, springing from our observation of our own bodies, which have a certain degree of interest. It is found that the processes of thought and feeling are connected with the brain. If the brain is disturbed, thoughts, sights, and sounds come into the consciousness which have no objective cause in the external world. Hence we may conclusively say that the human being, whatever he is, is in contact with the brain, and through the brain with the body, and through the body with the external world. It is the structures and movements in the brain which the human being perceives. It is by a structure in the brain that he apprehends nature, not immediately. The most beautiful sights and sounds have no effect on a human being unless there is the faculty in the brain of taking them in and handing them on to the consciousness. Hence, clearly, it is the movements and structure of the minute portions of matter forming the brain which the consciousness perceives. And it is only by models and representations made in the stuff of the brain that the mind knows external changes. Now, our brains are well furnished with models and representations of the facts and events of the external world. But a most important fact still requires its due weight to be laid upon it.