THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND CONSCIOUSNESS. 151 



that, upon matter so adjusted and so acting as the brain is adjusted 

 and acts, all color depends ? Because there is no sound in bell, or 

 breeze, or ocean, is there therefore no sound ? And wherein is the 

 wonder of it diminished when we have learned the construction of the 

 ear, its possible relation to a particular fold in the brain, and the neces- 

 sity of this for all the harmonies that fill the soul with glory ? Are 

 we, the thinking, sorrowing, hoping selves, any the less real because 

 all this thinking, all this sorrowing, and all this hoping depend in 

 strictest sense upon that most highly organized form of matter the 

 human brain ? 



George Eliot spoke truly when she said, " To advance in knowledge 

 is to outline, more perfectly, our ignorance " ; and who does not won- 

 der before the unknown ? When man is brought, as, if he is capable 

 of it, science will bring him, face to face with the darkness of mystery, 

 does he boast himself of all that he has learned? "We may rest assured 

 that the glory of mystery has not departed from off the face of the 

 heavens or of the deep. I know not where this mystery is greater, or 

 the wonder of it more manifest, than in the relation which obtains 

 between the brain and consciousness, between the brain and the per- 

 sonality that thinks and feels and wills. This relation is a fact. All 

 that we call our soul-life, from the sensations, the " building-stones " 

 of this life, to the most abstract thought and holiest desire, stands de- 

 pendent upon the activities of nerve-matter. Surely no one will be led 

 to say, so are these things dependent on stomach, lungs, and heart. 

 Such dependence is indirect, mediate, the other direct and immediate. 

 Between consciousness and the brain, between nerve-matter and our- 

 selves, there is a relation close, constant, immediate ; we may well 

 strive to reason upon the character of this relation. Here at the out- 

 set, this term reason must have clear meaning. I intend to use the 

 word as expressive of the process of inferring, of drawing a conclu- 

 sion from premises. I have now no concern with those who intui- 

 tively perceive truths beyond the territories of sense and inference. 

 Those for whom the immateriality of the soul is a direct deliverance 

 of consciousness may smile at the crawling pace of my induction ; 

 still, it is an honest and a needful endeavor to search after those con- 

 clusions respecting brain and consciousness which the inductive, infer- 

 ential process shall necessitate. 



In such search, nothing, as I think, is more important than to be 

 assured that, in reasoning from the knowledge given by our senses to 

 conclusions which transcend such knowledge, we must proceed accord- 

 ing to discerned resemblance. 



Two things agreeing with, which means, for us, resembling, one 

 and the same third thing, agree with, that is resemble, each other ; 

 and two things, of which one agrees with, that is, for us, resembles, 

 and the other does not agree with, that is, for us, does not resemble, a 

 third thing, do not resemble each other. If the manifestations of 



