Eichmond. — A Metaphysical Hypothesis. 539 



are the only beings, or at least the only finite beings, in the 

 universe. 



It is a necessary part of the hypothesis that what are ordi- 

 narily spoken of as the successive states of consciousness of a 

 man are not experienced by a single permanent being, or spirit, 

 or soul, but by a succession of beings, or spirits, or souls — namely, 

 the elements of the ether which from time to time occupy the 

 central position in the brain of the man. The sense of continued 

 personal identity is, according to the hypothesis, created and 

 maintained, notwithstanding this, by the continued corporate 

 identity of the brain and nervous system and body, notwith- 

 standing continual changes of the elements which constitute 

 them, and by the functions of the brain as the organ of memory 

 and anticipation. 



Though every single element of the ether has, in the hypo- 

 thesis, at least an elementary consciousness, the simplicity or 

 complexity of the consciousness of any element must, of course, 

 be supposed to vary immensely, from a very great simplicity 

 when little in the way of change is going on around it and in 

 it (as, for instance, in inter-stellar or ultra-stellar space), to a 

 very great complexity when it is, for instance, surrounded 

 by the brain of a man and subject to the influences of the im- 

 mensely complex processes going on in the brain of a man. 



In the view of physical science the elements of the ether 

 are spatially related, in the sense that each one of them has a 

 certain number of others immediately next or contiguous to 

 it, and acts directly or immediately upon, and is acted upon 

 directly or immediately by, those only which are immediately 

 next or contiguous to it. Action between elements which are 

 not immediately next or contiguous to one another is indirect 

 or mediate only — namely, through the medium of the inter- 

 vening elements. In the hypothesis here suggested this view 

 takes the following form : The multitude of the elements of the 

 ether is a multitude of conscious beings or spirits. They are 

 spatially related to one another in the sense that each of them 

 is directly and immediately related to a certain number of others, 

 which it directly and immediately knows, and by which it is 

 directly and immediately known, or between which and it there 

 is direct and immediate communication ; but communication 

 between it and all others than that certain number is indirect 

 or mediate only — namely, through the medium of those with 

 which it is in direct communication, and of others again with 

 which those are in direct communication, and so on. 



The transmission of states through the elements (or from 

 element to element) of the ether, into which, in the view of 

 physical science, the whole of the phenomena^of the (so-called) 



