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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cases, even those at the extremity of the 

 scale, is almost identical in composition. 

 And the one other fact on which he insisted 

 was, that every living action, from the vi- 

 brations of cilia by the foraminifer to the 

 imagination of Hamlet or the composition 

 of the Messiah, is accompanied by, and in a 

 sense finds an equivalent expression in, a 

 definite waste or disintegration of material 

 tissue. Thus it is no less certain that the 

 muscles of a horse are strained by a heavy 

 load, than it is that the brain of a Shake- 

 speare undergoes molecular agitation, pro- 

 ducing definite chemical results, in the sub- 

 lime effort of imagination." 



But, at first blush, such statements pro- 

 duce a shock in the minds of most readers. 

 They are reluctant to be told that the soul 

 never acts by itself apart from some excite- 

 ment of bodily tissue. It seems monstrous 

 that thought and love, which in one direc- 

 tion find their expression in the majesty of 

 eloquence, should in another direction find 

 their expression in evolving carbonic acid 

 and water. Such a union between soul and 

 body seemed to amount to identity. And 

 yet the soul was conscious that, whatever 

 might be said, it was not one of the chemi- 

 cal elements, nor all of them put together. 



The mental anxiety referred to has been 

 aggravated by the hold which has been 

 taken on most inquiring minds, by the doc- 

 trine of development. Whether natural 

 selection is or is not sufficient to account 

 for the origin of species, the idea of suc- 

 cessive acts of creation out of nothing has 

 been virtually abandoned by all whose ob- 

 servations of Nature have been on such a 

 scale as to entitle their opinions to any 

 weight. What was once the property of a 

 few isolated thinkers has been made com- 

 pletely accessible to minds of common in- 

 telligence. But the terrors which have 

 been awakened by the popular reception of 

 novel scientific theories are entirely founded 

 on the assumption that matter and spirit 

 are fundamentally distinct in their nature. 

 It has been the general belief that matter 

 was something heavy, lifeless, inert, some- 

 thing that forms the hidden basis of the 

 ethereal vision of the world. But, argues 

 the author, if that assumption be the mere 

 creature of false analogy, and is wholly in- 

 congruous and unthinkable, it does not in- 



deed follow that materialism, in a fair sense 

 of the word, is impossible, still the conclu- 

 sion cannot be avoided that materialism 

 and spiritualism would then exhibit only 

 different aspects of the same everlasting 

 fact, and physical research might henceforth 

 unfold to us only the energies of Infinite 

 Life self-governed by eternal law. 



But, admitting the universal action of 

 molecular mechanics, the author adduces 

 numerous instances which show that the 

 explanation they offer of the phenomena of 

 sensation cannot be realized in conscious- 

 ness. Nothing is really an explanation 

 which cannot be reproduced in conscious- 

 ness as such. We demand a cause from 

 which the effect can rationally be educed. 

 The perception of distance, for example, is 

 explained by the action of the muscular 

 sense and the experience of touch. This is 

 an adequate explanation, for it can be re- 

 alized in consciousness. But the case is far 

 otherwise with the explanation of sensation 

 by molecular mechanics. Physical research 

 lands us in a dead inert substance called 

 matter, which, though without soul or mean- 

 ing in itself, produces by its vibrations the 

 most beautiful visions and sublime emotions 

 in our consciousness. But the external phe- 

 nomena, inseparable from our consciousness 

 of sight or sound, cannot be rationally con- 

 nected with the consciousness that gives 

 them all their interest. No one to whom 

 the Hallelujah Chorus utters the joy of 

 heaven, or for whom a sonata of Beethoven 

 gives a voice to the unutterable, can make 

 it seem real to himself that his mind is in- 

 vaded by mere waves of vibrating air. At 

 no point in the chain of vibrations, not even 

 the point most deeply buried in the brain, 

 can we conceive that molecular action is 

 converted into any thing besides material 

 movement, or resistance to movement. But 

 this does not exhaust the consciousness. 

 The emotional, imaginative, and moral 

 wealth of human life opens a world of re- 

 ality immeasurably greater than can be con- 

 tained in mere mechanical movement. 



Assuming, then, the fact of a nature in 

 man, of which the molecular laws are not 

 the substance, but the condition, the author 

 takes up the inquiry as to the essential 

 nature of religion. This he defines to be 

 the endeavor after a practical expression of 



