612 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
explain the unknown in terms of the more unknown. Try 
to mentally visualize this soul as an entity distinct from 
the body, and the difficulty immediately appears. From 
the side of science all that we are warranted in stating is 
that the terror, hope, sensation, and calculation of Lange's 
merchant, are psychical phenomena produced by, or asso- 
ciated with, the molecular processes set up by waves of 
light in a previously prepared brain. 
When facts present themselves let us dare to face them, 
but let the man of science equally dare to confess igno- 
rance where it prevails. What then is the causal connection, 
if any, between the objective and subjective between 
molecular motions and states of consciousness? Mv answer 
is: I do not see the connection, nor have I as yet met any- 
body who does. It is no explanation to say that the ob- 
jective and subjective effects are two sides of one and the 
same phenomenon. Why should tl>e phenomenon have 
two sides? This is the very core of the difficulty. There 
are plenty of molecular motions which do not exhibit this 
two-sided ness. Does water think or feel when it runs into 
frost ferns upon a window-pane? If not, why should the 
molecular motion of the brain be yoked to this mysterious 
companion consciousness? We can form a coherent 
picture of the physical processes -the stirring of the brain, 
the thrilling of the nerves, the discharging of the muscles, 
and all the subsequent mechanical motions of the organ- 
ism. But we can present to our minds no picture of the 
process whereby consciousness emerges, either as a neces- 
sary link or as an accidental by-product of this series of 
actions. Yet it certainly does emerge the prick of a pin 
suffices to prove that molecular motion can produce con- 
sciousness. The reverse process of the production of motion 
by consciousness is equally unpresentable to the mind. 
We are here, in fact, upon the boundary line of the 
intellect, where the ordinary canons of science fail to 
extricate us from our difficulties. If we are true to these 
canons, we must deny to subjective phenomena all influence 
on physical processes. Observation proves that they 
interact, but in passing from one to the other we meet 
a blank which mechanical deduction is unable to fill. 
Frankly stated, we have here to deal with facts almost 
as difficult to seize mentally as the idea of a soul. And 
if you are content to make your " soul " a poetic render- 
