222 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



thought, that surely is mind. It is a mere 

 question of words. But if force be defined so as 

 designedly to exclude mind, then it is not a 

 sufficient or exhaustive classification of things to 

 say that matter and force are all. Even Professor 

 Huxley, in a somewhat jaunty way, but with truth, 

 says : " It seems to me pretty plain that there is a 

 third thing in the universe, to wit, consciousness, 

 which, in the hardness of my heart or head, I 

 cannot see to be matter, or force, or any conceivable 

 modification of either, however intimately the mani- 

 festations of the phenomena of consciousness may 

 be connected with the phenomena known as matter 

 and force." (Fortnightly Review, December, 1886.) 



Whatever philosophers may mean by force, 

 therefore, it seems there is consciousness or mind, 

 for consciousness is mental or nothing. On what 

 ground, then, can we ignore mind, or refuse to 

 admit the validity of its demand for an original 

 cause ? 



These attempts to shut out mental phenomena from 

 science and to deride them as belonging to a vain 

 and unprofitable metaphysic are most unscientific. 

 Mind will be heard. Its instincts, intuitions, con- 

 victions, cannot be permanently stifled. It knows 

 itself to be greater than matter. It has the con- 

 sciousness of power, and it postulates in a perfectly 

 scientific manner a Supreme Original, the First 

 Cause of all that is. 



The absurdity of excluding from the purview 

 of science all that seems to transcend the senses 

 of man will be seen still more distinctly when 



