196 SIR WILLIAM CROOKES ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 



this also makes a sort of concave trough for itself on the surface and 

 floats tranquilly. After these and a few more observations he theo- 

 rizes on the properties of water and of liquids in general. Will he 

 come to the conclusion that liquids seek their own level, that their 

 •surfaces when at rest are horizontal, and that solids when placed in a 

 liquid sink or float according to their higher or lower specific gravity? 

 No; he will feel justified in inferring that liquids at rest assume 

 spherical, or at least curvilinear forms, whether convex or concave, 

 depending upon circumstances not easily ascertained; that they can 

 not be poured from one vessel to another and resist the force of gravi- 

 tation, which is consequently not universal, and that such ])odies as 

 he can manipulate generally refuse to sink in liquids, whether their 

 specific gravity be high or low. From the behavior of a body placed 

 in contact with a dewdrop he will even derive plausible reasons for 

 doubting the inertia of matter. 



Already he has been somewhat puzzled by the constant and capri- 

 cious bombardment of cumbrous objects like portmanteaus flying in 

 the air; for the gay motes that people the sunbeams will dance some- 

 what unpleasantly for a microscopic homunculus who can ne^ er tell 

 where they are coming. Na}', what he has understood to ])e the difli- 

 culty experienced l)y living creatures in rising from the earth, except 

 with wings, will soon seem absurdl}^ exaggerated; for he will discern 

 a terrific creature, a behemoth "in plated mail," leaping through the 

 skies in frenzied search for prey, and for the first time due homage 

 will be rendered to the majesty of the conmion flea. 



Perturbed by doubts, he will gaze at night into some al)solutely tran 

 quil pool. There, with no wind to ruffle, nor access of heat to cause 

 currents or change surface tension, he perceives small inanimate objects 

 immersed and still. But are they still? No. One of them moves; 

 another is moving. Gradually it is borne in upon him that whenever 

 any object is small enough it is always in motion. Perhaps our honmn- 

 culus might be better able than we are to explain these so-called 

 Brownian movements; or the guess might be forced upon him that 

 he who sees this sight is getting dim glimpses of the ultimate struc- 

 ture of matter, and that these movements are residual, the result of 

 the inward molecular turmoil which has not canceled itself out into 

 nullity, as it must needs do in aggregations of matter of more than the 

 smallest microscopic dimensions. 



Things still more tormentingly perplexing our homunculus would 

 doubtless encounter. And these changes in his interpretation of phe- 

 nomena would arise not from his becoming aware of any forces hitherto 

 overlooked, still less from the disappearance of laws now recognized, 

 but simply from the fact that his supposed decrease in bodily size 

 brings capillarity, surface tension, etc., into a relative prominence they 

 do not now possess. To full-grown rational beings the efl'ects of these 



