Dec. 19. 1878] 



NATURE 



143 



von Nageli in a lecture, of which a translation was given 

 in Nature, vol. xvi. p. 531. 



He can draw no line across the chain of being, and say 

 that sensation and consciousness do not extend below 

 that line. He cannot doubt that ever>' molecule possesses 

 something related, though distantly, to sensation, " since 

 each one feels the presence, the particular condition, the 

 peculiar forces of the other, and, accordingly, has the 

 inclination to move, and under circumstances really 

 begins to move — becomes alive as it were;" ... "It 

 therefore, the molecules feel something which is related 

 to sensation, then this must be pleasure if they can 

 respond to attraction and repulsion, />., follow their 

 inclination or disinclination ; it must be displeasure if 

 they are forced to execute some opposite movement, and 

 it must be neither pleasure nor displeasure if they remain 

 at rest." 



Prof, von Nageli must have forgotten his dynamics, 

 or he would have remembered that the molecules, 

 like the planets, move along like blessed gods. They 

 cannot be disturbed from the path of their choice by the 

 action of any forces, for they have a constant and per- 

 petual will to render to every force precisely that amount 

 of deflexion which is due to it. Their condition must, 

 therefore, be one of unmixed and unbroken pleasure. 



But even if a man were built up of thinking atoms 

 would the thoughts of the man have any relation to the 

 thoughts of the atoms ? Those who try to account for 

 mental processes by the combined action of atoms do so, 

 not by the thoughts of the atoms, but by their motions. 



Dr. StofTkraft explains the origin of consciousness 

 at p. ^^ and at p. 107. We recommend to his atten- 

 tion Mr. Herbert Spencer's statement in his "Prin- 

 ciples of Psychology," § 179, where he shows in a most 

 triumphant manner how, under certain circumstances, 

 "there must arise a consciousness." Such statements 

 carefully studied, may contribute to the further progress 

 <rf science in the path which we have been describing, by 

 showing more clearly that consciousness cannot be the 

 result of a plexus of nervous communications any more 

 than of a congeries of plastidule souls. 



Personality is often spoken of as if it were another 

 name for the continuity of consciousness as reproduced 

 in memory, but it is impossible to deal with personality 

 as if it were something objective that we could reason 

 about. My knowledge that I am is quite independent of 

 my recollection that I was, and also of my belief that, 

 for a certain number of years, I have never ceased to 

 be. But as soon as we plunge into the abysmal depths 

 of personality we get beyond the limits of science, for all 

 science, and, indeed, every form of human speech, is 

 about objects capable of being known by the speaker and 

 the hearer. Whenever we pretend to talk about the 

 Subject we are really dealing with an Object under a 

 felse name, for the first proposition about the Subject, 

 namely, " I am," cannot be used in the same sense by 

 any two of us, and therefore can never become part of 



'ence at all. 



The progress of science, therefore, so far as we have 

 been able to follow it, has added nothing of importance 

 to what has always been known about the physical con- 

 sequences of death, but has rather tended to deepen the 

 distinction between the visible part,'which perishes before 



our eyes, and that which we are ourselves, and to show 

 that this personality, with respect to its nature as well 

 as to its destiny, lies quite beyond the range of science, 



J. Clerk Max\velz. 



SCIENCE CLASS-BOOKS 



The London Science Class-Books. Edited by G. Carey 

 Foster, F.R.S., and Philip Magnus, B.Sc. Biolo- 

 gical Series. i. Botany — Outlines of Morphology 

 and Physiology. 2. Botany — Outlines of Classification 

 of Plants. By W. Ramsay McNab, M.D. 3. Zoology 

 of the Vertebrate Animals. 4. Zoology of the Inver- 

 tebrate Animals. By Prof. A. Macalister, (London ; 

 Longmans, Green and Co., 1878.) 



THE editors of this series of Elementary Science Class- 

 Books intend that the works shall all be composed 

 with special reference to school teaching ; that they shall 

 be suited to the capabiHties and comprehension oi boys 

 and girls during their school course, while they shall at 

 the same time afford trustworthy and accurate information 

 presented in such a way that it may ser\-e as a basis for 

 more advanced study. In thus announcing their scheme 

 the editors would seem to indicate that they have learned 

 to appreciate the ver>- great want that exists in all oo: 

 public schools of just such a series of class-books as- 

 they undertake to supply; and though the standard st: 

 which they aim cannot be regarded as a high one, stU^ 

 most judges will agree that it is both a suitable and s» 

 proper one, and it is one that we wish the editors every 

 success in their carrying of it out. If the natural sciences 

 are to be taught in our schools the scholars must ha\^ 

 class-books of these sciences, and we take it as a good 

 sign that the demand for such class-books is in this 

 new series being supplied. The information in the 

 present series is to be accurate and trustworthy, and' 

 the names of the authors of the four books already pub- 

 lished of the biological series is a sufficient guarantee - 

 that this is so. The information is to be suited to the 

 capabilities of girls and boys during their school-days, 

 and still it is to be presented in such a way as to form the 

 basis of a higher study. The authors' names, howcTer 

 distinguished, will be no necessary guarantee of this. Jt 

 is not given to every one to be able to write an elementary 

 book that may serve as the basis for a more ad\-ancei 

 study. In the first two class-books on oiu- list the author 

 indeed does not even make the attempt. In his preface 

 Prof. McNab declares that it has been thought advis>- 

 able to make his class-books on Botany such as would 

 serve as a basis for the teaching in the higher classes 

 of schools, and such as would supply the wants of 

 medical students and others wishing to acquire a know- 

 ledge of the subject. We think this a pity, for ire 

 certainly at once miss that strictly elementary treatment 

 of the subject, that full statement and discussion of the 

 fundamental facts thereof, which we were led to expect, 

 not by the author, but by his editors ; and however useful 

 and instructive these two class-books may be, the aim 

 that we fancy they should have kept in view is lost in the 

 endeavoiu-, to quote their authors' own words, that they 

 should " serve as an introduction to the celebrated text- 

 book of the distinguished German botanist, whose " Lehr* 



