Constance Naden and hylo-idealism : a critical study / by E. Cobham Brewer ; annotated by R. Lewins.

  • E. Cobham Brewer
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Constance Naden and hylo-idealism : a critical study / by E. Cobham Brewer ; annotated by R. Lewins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    exact and moral sciences [liave] convinced me of the trnth of his position.” The question which requires answer is what is Dr. Lewins’s ‘ position,’ which Miss Naden felt to be impregnable ? I will answer what the scientific part of it seems to me to be. Apparently, Dr. Lewins divides the universe* into two parts —tlie Terra Cognita and the Terra Incognita. Every individual known to man is a living museum in the Terra C(\guita, and that museum with all its varied contents form what is called a separate Ego or Individuality. All that may by hypothesis ])e supposed to lielong to the Terra Incognita is a sealed book, wholly unknown to man; and this region, with its unknown contents, is called the Non-ego. In the Terra Cognita there is no Non-ego, and in the Terra Incognita no Ego. But it is quite possible for an avatar to proceed from the Terra Incognita to the ’I’erra Cognita, and vice versa, certain factors of the Ego may pass out of know- ledge, and get buried in the great Unknown. Thus, since telescopes and microscopes were used, thousands and tens of thousands of far-off worlds, and countless myriads of protozoa, too small to be discerned by the naked eye, have made their advents from the Terra Incognita to the now well- known world. While they were unknown they belonged to the Non-ego class, now they are known they are naturalised denizens of the Ego world So again, both in life and death, there are parts of what we call ‘ us,’ which go no one knows whither; and therefore fiy away, like the swallows in the fall of the year, to the Land Unknown. They pass from the Ego to the Non-ego.t * 111 Hylo-iile<alisni there i.s no universe outside the Universal Idea or Thought. It.s forniula in tliis aspect, is L’Univers c’est Moi.—E. L. t I do not find so i'ar as I understand it, lliis division into two worlds—a Known and Unknown one—coiiipatilde with the .strict mono- co.sm of Hylo-idealisni. —E. L.