644 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of consciousness. These phases of consciousness at best only- 

 point toward truth. They are not truth itself. They vary with 

 the varying nerve cells of each individual creature on whom 

 phases of consciousness are impressed, and again with the changes 

 in the cells themselves. The tricks of the senses are well known 

 in psychology, as is also the failure of the senses as to material 

 outside their usual range. Life is at best "in a dimly lighted 

 room/' and all the objects about us are in their essence quite dif- 

 ferent from what they seem. This essence is unknown and un- 

 knowable. We are well aware that we have no power to recog- 

 nize all phases of reality. The electric condition of an object 

 may be as real as its color or its temperature, and yet none of our 

 senses respond to it. Our eyes give but an octave of the vibra- 

 tions we call light, and our ears are dull to all but a narrow 

 range in pitch of sound. 



Likewise is reason to be discredited. The commonest things 

 become unknown or impossible when viewed " in the critical 

 light of philosophy." Balfour shows that the simple affirmation, 

 " the sun gives light," loses all its meaning and possibility when 

 taken out of the category of human experience and discussed in 

 terms of philosophy. In like manner can any simple fact be 

 thrown into the category of myths and dreams. A man can be 

 led by the methods of metaphj^sics to doubt the existence of him- 

 self or of any object about him. For instance, take the dis- 

 cussion of " John's John " and of " Thomas's John," as given by 

 Dr. Holmes. Is the real John the John as he appears to John 

 himself ? Or is he real only in the form in which Thomas re- 

 gards him, or as he looks to Richard and Henry, whose interest in 

 him is progressively less ? All we know of the external universe 

 is through the impressions made directly or indirectly on our 

 nervous systems and through recorded impressions made on the 

 systems of others ; and a part of this external universe v/e our- 

 selves are. All that we know of ourselves is that which is ex- 

 ternal to ourselves. Thus with all this, each man forms in his 

 mind a universe of his own. " My mind to me a kingdom is," 

 and this kingdom in all its parts is somewhat different from any 

 other mental kingdom. It is continually changing. It was made 

 but once, and will never be duplicated. When my vital processes 

 cease, this kingdom will vanish " like the baseless fabric of a 

 vision, leaving not a wreck behind." Our mind is the " stuff that 

 dreams are made of " and our bodies what are they ? Physic- 

 ally each man is an alliance of animals, each one of a single cell, 

 each cell with its processes of life, growth, death, and reproduc- 

 tion, each one with its own " cell-soul" which presides over these 

 processes. In the alliance of these cells, forming tissues and 

 organs, we have the phenomena of mutual helpt and mutual de- 



