118 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



lecular force. And unless the existence of law in these 

 matters be denied, and the element of caprice introduced, 

 we must conclude that, given the relation of any molecule 

 of the body to its environment, its position in the body 

 might be determined mathematically. Our difficulty is not 

 with the quality of the problem, but with its complexity 

 and this difficulty might be met by the simple expansion 

 of the faculties which we now possess. Given this expan 

 sion, with the necessary molecular data, and the chick 

 might be deduced as rigorously and as logically from the 

 egg as the existence of Neptune from the disturbances of 

 Uranus, or as conical refraction from the undulatory theory 

 L of light. 



You see I am not mincing matters, but avowing nakedly 

 what many scientific thinkers more or less distinctly be 

 lieve. The formation of a crystal, a plant, or an animal, is 

 in their eyes a purely mechanical problem, which differs 

 from the problems of ordinary mechanics in the smallness 

 of the masses and the complexity of the processes involved. 

 Here you have one half of our dual truth ; let us now glance 

 ut the other half. Associated with this wonderful mechan 

 ism of the animal body we have phenomena no less certain 

 than those of physics, but between which and the mechan 

 ism we discern no necessary connection. A man, for ex 

 ample, can say, I feel, I think, I love ; but how does 

 consciousness infuse itself into the problem ? The human 

 brain is said to be the organ of thought and feeling j when 

 we are hurt the brain feels it, when we ponder it is the 

 brain tluit thinks, when our passions or affections are ex 

 cited it is through the instrumentality of the brain. Let us 

 endeavor to be a little more precise here. I hardly imagine 

 there exists a profound scientific thinker, who has reflected 



I upon the subject, unwilling to admit the extreme proba 

 bility of the hypothesis that, for every fact of consciousness, 

 whether in the domain of sense, of thought, or of emotion, 



