1866. | On Cell Life. 247 
of looking at the question, it must be so, as a matter of course, since 
when only a small number cf cells are at hand, each single cell must 
be more strained than when many are present to relieve one another. 
In the first case, the whole mass would speedily become exhausted. 
Thus it is, that we find it an acknowledged fact, that the greatest 
men as a rule have very big heads. It is explained by the con- 
sideration that to illustrious actions belong not only activity, but 
also steady energy and endurance in their accomplishment, which 
qualities simply depend on the size of the cerebral mass. In the 
course of our observations, I must freely admit, in conclusion, we 
passed over an obscure point—namely, How is it that to us our own 
consciousness seems personal, whereas, according to the representa- 
tions made above, it should be rather the united consciousness of a 
people? I know no solution of this problem, excepting a masterpiece 
of human wisdom from Kant’s ‘ Critique on Pure Reason.’ It is this: 
“ An elastic ball which strikes another divides with it its whole 
momentum, consequently, its whole phase of being. Suppose, then, 
an analogous case, in which bodies of like material are concerned, 
the one imparting to the other cdeas: a whole series is easily con- 
eeived, in which any one which may be regarded as the first com- 
municates to a second its conditions and the consciousness of them; 
the second acts similarly on a third, communicating, not only its 
own conditions, but those of the first also; whilst the third in like 
manner communicates the conditions of all the preceding ones 
together with its own, and their consciousness. The last body 
would thus be conscious of all the phases of being of the bodies that 
had been modified before it, as well as of its own, because these 
phases of being were transferred to it together with their conscious- 
ness, and in consequence of this, would it not have been identically 
the same individual in all these phases of existence ? ”* 
Is if not as though the great thinker had flashed forth the 
then undiscovered construction of the nervous system, with its cells 
sharing with one another their conditions, Verily, the veil is as 
yet but just touched. It still remains impenetrably thick over the 
secret depths of our inner selves, and so will remain to the end, 
* The utterances of great thinkers are ever suggestive. If we have a row of elastic 
balls touching one another, and give a blow to the first, it will impart its momentum 
to the second ; that will affect the third, and so on, with gradually-diminishing in- 
tensity, until the last isimpelled slightly forward from the rest. But modern physics 
teach us that each ball will haye been affected in another way. If the force, the 
motive impulse, has diminished in its passage through the balls, a little heat will 
have been set up, in conformity with the law of the Conservation of forces. 
Thus, when the divine truth or energy is conyeyed into the mind of a man who 
stands at tle head of a series of thinkers, it fires his brain; but he imparts the 
“momentum” to his neighbour, and the influence passes from mind to mind, 
probably with diminishing vigour, until it reaches the last mind—that which offers 
the least resistance; for there is none lower to whom it can communicate it; and 
so it is not fired, but moved a little forwards: that last mind is the mind of the 
masses.— Eprrors. 
VOL, ITT. 8 
