Now, if this feeling of Q be the only creation of the god, it will of
course form the entire universe. And if, to escape the cavils of that
large class of persons who believe that SEMPER IDEM SENTIRE AC NON
SENTIRE are the same, [Footnote:1 'The Relativity of Knowledge,' held
in this sense, is, it may be observed in passing, one of the oddest of
philosophic superstitions. Whatever facts may be cited in its favor are
due to the properties of nerve-tissue, which may be exhausted by
too prolonged an excitement. Patients with neuralgias that last
unremittingly for days can, however, assure us that the limits of this
nerve-law are pretty widely drawn. But if we physically could get a
feeling that should last eternally unchanged, what atom of logical or
psychological argument is there to prove that it would not be felt as
long as it lasted, and felt for just what it is, all that time? The
reason for the opposite prejudice seems to be our reluctance to think
that so stupid a thing as such a feeling would necessarily be, should
be allowed to fill eternity with its presence. An interminable
acquaintance, leading to no knowledge-about,--such would be its
condition.] we allow the feeling to be of as short a duration as they
like, that universe will only need to last an infinitesimal part of a
second. The feeling in question will thus be reduced to its fighting
weight, and all that befalls it in the way of a cognitive function
must be held to befall in the brief instant of its quickly snuffed-out
life,--a life, it will also be noticed, that has no other moment of
consciousness either preceding or following it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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