1885.] on liow Thought presents itself in Nature. 193 



to be in readiness to accept any evidence as to what they really are, 

 for in all we know there is nothing to be set against that evidence. 

 Now there is some evidence, and even considerable evidence, that 

 that external cause is thought, not our thought, but thought that is 

 going on elsewhere than in our consciousness. For this hypothesis, 

 the simplest that can be entertained, quite gets rid of what is else 

 an oppressive difficulty, the abrupt appearance of thought along 

 with that one particular organisation which we call a brain, although 

 the whole train of physical causes and effects is complete without it, 

 and leaves no room for it. On the hypothesis now put forward the 

 thought which is associated with a brain would be no " Jack in the 

 box," springing up suddenly before us, but would be in full conso- 

 nance with the ordinary course of nature. The weight of these 

 considerations will be found to be very considerable when they are 

 carefully pondered over, and I think warrant us — 



1st. In being confident that all existence known to us is at 



most of two kinds, thought and whatever is the external source 



of our conceptions of motion ; and 



2nd. In regarding it as probahle that the latter existence is 



thought — not our thoughts, but the thought of the great 



" Anima," or rather Animus " Mundi." 



Other Considerations Support this Conclusion. 



Every simplification of nature which can be effected recommends 

 itself to our scientific judgment, and w^e are justified in esteeming 

 very highly the evidence upon which we may carry the simplifica- 

 tion of nature to this farthest point. What we have already adduced 

 is sui^ported by other considerations. The hypothesis calls upon 

 us to admit that the thoughts of which we are conscious as our mind, 

 and are aware of as minds in our fellow-men and in other animals 

 are in reality very small swirls in an illimitable ocean of thought. 

 Moreover, our mind, the cerebration of which we are conscious, can 

 be but a small portion even of the thought going on inside our own 

 brain, the rest being as much outside our consciousness as are the 

 thoughts of our fellow-men. We may judge how much lies beyond our 

 consciousness by reflecting that we have no thoughts at all with such 

 time relations as the original molecular motions of our brains, so that 

 all these, though they are present, lie utterly remote from the grasp 

 of such a consciousness as ours. Our consciousness is in fact very 

 much more restricted on this side. Every one must have noticed that 

 as we become expert in any art, in walking, speaking, reading, playing 

 from music, riding a bicycle, it comes to be done more and more 

 outside our consciousness, and partly because the separate acts of 

 the process then succeed one another too promptly to be consciously 

 followed. While the habit is being formed it is found to hang for a 

 long time on the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness, 

 passing inside that boundary when we give special attention to what 

 we are doing, passing outside when we otherwise occupy our thoughts. 



Vol. XI. (No. 79.) o 



