510 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



assailants has attempted to answer it. Some of them, 

 indeed, rejoice over the ability displayed by Bishop Butler 

 in rolling back the difficulty on his opponent; and they 

 even imagine that it is the bishop's own argument that is 

 there employed. But the raising of a new difficulty does 

 not abolish does not even lessen the old one, and the 

 argument of the Lucretian remains untouched by anything 

 the bishop has said or can say. 



And here it may be permitted me to add a word to an im- 

 portant controversy now going on: and which turns on the 

 question: Do states of consciousness enter as links into the 

 chain of antecedence and sequence, which give rise to 

 bodily actions, and to other states of consciousness; or are 

 they merely by-products, which are not essential to the 

 physical processes going on in the brain? Speaking for 

 myself, it is certain that I have no power of imagining 

 states of consciousness, interposed between the molecules 

 of the brain, and influencing the transference of motion 

 among the molecules. The thought "eludes all mental 

 presentation;" and hence the logic seems of iron strength 

 which claims for the brain an automatic action, unin- 

 fluenced by states of consciousness. But it is, I believe, 

 admitted by those who hold the automaton- theory, that 

 states of consciousness are produced by the marshaling of 

 the molecules of the brain: and this production of con- 

 sciousness by molecular motion is to me quite as incon- 

 ceivable on mechanical principles as the production of 

 molecular motion by consciousness. If, therefore, I reject 

 one result, I must reject both. I, however, reject neither, 

 and thus stand in the presence of two Incomprehensibles, 

 instead of one Incomprehensible. While accepting fear- 

 lessly the facts of materialism dwelt upon in these pages, I 

 bow my head in the dust before that mystery of mind, 

 which has hitherto defied its own penetrative power, and 

 which may ultimately resolve itself into a demonstrable 

 impossibility o,f self-penetration. 



Bu^ th,e secret is an open one the practical monitions 

 are plajn enough, which declare that on our dealings with 

 matter depend our weal and woe, physical and moral. 

 The state pf mind which rebels against the recognition of 

 the clainis of " materialism " is not unknown tome. I 

 can remember a time when I regarded my body us a weed* 



