356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



transmitted. In this way are organized forms maintained during the 

 lapse of years, despite the waste continually going on. 



Now that the self-existence of energy has been substantiated, and 

 motion is no longer considered merely a condition or state of matter in 

 the old sense, the creation and annihilation theory is being shifted to 

 consciousness or the ego feeling. This feeling is looked upon as a 

 product of a certain mode of motion brought about by a certain form 

 of matter, or it is said to be one side of energy. But few pause to 

 consider what such expressions imply. If consciousness is a product 

 of organization, then the proper amount, quality, and arrangement, of 

 matter and motion constitute the ego. Let us consider this. If we 

 put inactive matter together in any form we choose, the only thing we 

 can conceive of its having is that form. Add energy to such an ar- 

 rangement of matter, and the only conceivable result will be some 

 mode of motion which the mode of arrangement directed. Whether 

 we arrange atoms, molecules, or masses, in simple or complex order, 

 the addition of energy will only give a mode of energy. Matter can 

 direct energy, but we cannot conceive of its turning it into something 

 that is not energy. We cannot conceive of a motion being a passion 

 or sensation. No element of kinship can be detected between a kind 

 of motion and love or hate. Conceive of any mode, speed, or direction 

 of motion you choose, and they will never even suggest the possibility 

 of their creating thought, will, hate, avarice, love, ambition, color, 

 sound, taste, odor, or any other sensation. We can perceive that these 

 are all forms of the one ego feeling, but that that could ever arise 

 merely from a mode of motion is absolutely unthinkable. We can con- 

 ceive of feeling coming in when certain forms of matter and modes of 

 energy are present, but no alternative theory can for a moment be en- 

 tertained. It must either come in under favorable circumstances or be 

 their product. The law of excluded middle forbids a third possibility. 

 The first of the only two alternatives is conceivable, the second incon- 

 ceivable. If we here apply Mr. Herbert Spencer's test of truth, " the 

 inconceivability of the opposite," we must admit that consciousness 

 possesses an independent existence of its own. We can conceive of no 

 form of matter and energy being the ego feeling. As it is absolutely 

 impossible to think of any form of motion arising in matter without 

 energy entering from some source, so it is equally as impossible to con- 

 ceive of consciousness arising in any form of matter or motion without 

 conceiving that a substance of consciousness was infused at some stage. 

 We may, by refusing to think, give an indorsement to the verbal ex- 

 pression, and so deceive ourselves by imagining we believe it. Every 

 proof that can be given of a substance of matter or energy will be 

 equally telling when turned on consciousness. It is just as impossible 

 to conceive of the substance of matter being energy or consciousness, 

 of the substance of enersrv beinjr matter or consciousness, as of the 

 substance of consciousness being matter and energy. If we demand 



