The organs of sight, hearing, and touch, then, are the three principal avenues through which we obtain knowledge of matter, they themselves, however highly organized, being also material. Now, I have said that there is an inhabited domain in immediate touch with the earth, although not discoverable by any of the scientific instruments of investigation. Sight, hearing, and touch do not sustain this, and declare such a domain non-existent. If we bear in mind that these organs deal with matter only, it may be freely admitted that they speak the truth. The world whose existence we are asserting is an immaterial world, and although it be immaterial, it can be shown that it has, nevertheless, a claim upon our profound attention. Certainly, after what has been shown, it ought not to lose in interest on that account. _For, if our bodily senses are, by their very constitution, unable to bring us any reports save such as pertain to matter, their silence in regard to the world we speak of counts for nothing._ But it may be said that all entities are material. This is a specious plea, but the generalization is too broad. Let us test it in a familiar way. Benjamin Franklin was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and attached his name to the immortal document in a clear and legible manner. All this has to do with matter. Even the emotions which he may be supposed to have experienced while affixing his name, although not in themselves material, had a material effect upon his frame. I say that those emotions were not in themselves material. I might take my stand here, but prefer to go one step further, and put a question: What were those emotions? and then add, This question is not in itself material. It might be made a subject of thought. An essay might be written upon it, which would be esteemed good, bad, or indifferent, according as the author rightly apprehended the character of the man. The question may never have been put into language before, but it is now a real entity, and our mental powers, acting freely, will have no trouble in so regarding it. It will be seen that, while it may become associated with things material, may be written so as to be seen, spoken so as to be heard, or even stamped to reach the apprehension of the blind, these material associations are no essential part of the question, since it might arise in the mind without any such aid, and be examined there without calling into play any one of the bodily senses, or any combination of them. It may be said that this is an idle question, unworthy to take an important place in an argument, but it cannot be said that it is a foolish question; and it may well stand as a representative of other questions, questions which might have been substituted; questions which have arisen in many minds at the same time, and the answering of which has involved the overthrow of kingdoms, thereby demonstrating, if necessary, the reality of their existence. CHAPTER X.