But a pattern can stretch for ever and still be a small pattern.

They see a chess-board white on black, and if the universe is paved with it, it is still white on black.
Like the lunatic, they cannot alter their standpoint; they cannot make a mental effort and suddenly see it black on white.
Take first the more obvious case of materialism.

As an explanation of the world, materialism has a sort of insane simplicity.

It has just the quality of the madman's argument; we have at once the sense of it covering everything and the sense of it leaving everything out.
Contemplate some able and sincere materialist, as, for instance, Mr.
McCabe, and you will have exactly this unique sensation.

He understands everything, and everything does not seem worth understanding.