nception as
something quite different from the actual stellar universe upon
which we all gaze. Even the most purely rational minds who find
the universe in "pure thought" are driven against their rational will
to visualize this "pure thought" and to give it body and form and
shape and movement.

These hidden and subconscious representations, in terms of sensible
imagery, of the conclusions of philosophic thought, are themselves
of profound philosophical interest. We cannot afford to neglect
them. They are at least proof of the inalienable part played, in the
functioning of our complex vision, by _sensation_ as an organ of
research. But they have a further interest. They are an illuminating
revelation of the inherent character and personal bias of the
individual soul who is philosophizing. I suppose to a great many
minds what we call "the universe" presents itself as a colossal circle,
without any circumference, filled with an innumerable number of
material objects floating in some thin attenuated ether. I suppose the
centre of this circle with no circumference is generally assumed to
be the "self" or "soul" of the person projecting this particular image.

Doubtless, in some cases, it is assumed to be such a person's
physical body as it feels itself conscious of sensation and is aware of
space and time.

As I myself use the expression "complex vision" I suppose I call up
in the minds of my various readers an extraordinary variety of
pictorial images. Without laying any undue stress upon this pictorial
tendency, I should like to indicate the kind of projected image
which I myself am conscious of, when I use the expression, "the
complex vision."

I seem to visualize this thing as a wavering, moving mass of flames,
taking the shape of what might be called a "horizontal pyramid," the
apex of which, where the flames are fused and lost in one another, is
continually cleaving the darkness like the point of a fiery arrow,
while the base of it remains continually invisible by reason of some
magical power which confuses the senses whenever they seek to
touch or to hold it.

Sometimes I seem to see this "base" or "spear handle" or "arrow
shaft," of my moving horizontal pyramid, as a kind of deeper
darkness; sometimes as a vibration of air; sometimes as a cloud of
impenetrable smoke. I am always conscious of the curious fact that,
while I can most vividly see the apex-point of the thing, and while I
know that this moving pyr