LIFE; BODY AND MIND 201 



has recently fallen under the ban of science, 

 and is studiously disregarded or treated as a 

 trivial by-product of chemistry and physiology. 

 It is hard to understand this fashion unless it 

 is that, distrusting ourselves, we are afraid of 

 once more anthropomorphizing the world and 

 repeopling it with its old sprites and goblins. I 

 believe we may resist this temptation while we 

 devote the rest of this chapter to a discussion 

 of what in an extended sense we may call the 

 mental phenomena of animate things. 



It is surely some kind of make-believe that 

 has led scientists in recent years to treat of the 

 mind as some sort of minor parasite upon the 

 body. A physical injury produces a change in 

 our mental state, but on the other hand it may 

 be sho\\Ti that an insult or a disappointment 

 immediately affects the chemical composition of 

 the blood. If we look for cause and effect, or for 

 temporal precedence, we must regard the physi- 

 cal and the psychical as of coordinate impor- 

 tance in the life of man. Surely it is not really 

 necessary to argue for the power of mind.^ Con- 

 sider the progress of science and invention. If 

 all these were blind consequences of chance ar- 

 rangements of atoms, why should not the age 

 of alchemy follow rather than precede the age 



