What are we to think of the so called "cause" of these reactions? 

 What is the condition, or what the conditions of the ultimate particles 

 — atoms or molecules — underlying and prompting this change of asso- 

 ciates? To say that chemical affinity is the cause; that the chlorine 

 atoms — at first associated in these experiments with those of sodium — 

 have an inherently stronger attraction for silver than for sodium; and 

 that the molecules of the nitric acid radical — which we found associated 

 with silver atoms — have naturally a greater attraction for sodium than 

 for silver, and conversely; and that in obeying these stronger attractions, 

 which is the law of their several beings, the decompositions and recon- 

 structions recited are accomplished; is not to explain, but to relate the 

 facts of the case; it is equivalent to saying that copper is red because 

 of its inherent quality of redness. The real question, is why has the 

 chlorine atom a greater attraction for the silver atom than for that of 

 sodium? What property, state or condition of the chlorine atom, which 

 is appreciable by our senses or mind, determines its stronger attraction 

 for silver, and its weaker attraction for sodium, and conversely? 



This thesis has for its object to answer these questions. 



We have here, apparently , a case where the atoms involved in the 

 reactions are conscious entities, which know and are known by each 

 other; a case where, in associating to build up molecular structures, 

 they reciprocally prefer this atom to that, and choose out from a mixed 

 aggregation of atoms or molecules those of one kind in preference to 

 those of another. Is it that the fundamental elements and raw material, 

 so to speak, of intelligence, viz. : consciousness, the power of knowing, 

 and the power of volition, are inherent in the raw material or stuff of 

 the Universe?* 



We are reminded here of Tyndall's celebrated declaration, in the 

 nature of a confession, made in his Belfast address, twenty years ago, 

 before the British Association for the Advancement ot Science: "Believ- 

 ing, as I do, in the continuity of nature, I cannot stop abruptly where 

 our microscopes cease to be of use. Here the vision of the mind 

 authoritatively supplements the vision of the eye. By an intellectual 

 necessity, I cross the boundary of the experimental evidence, and dis- 

 cern in that matter — which we in our ignorance of its latent powers, 

 and notwithstanding our professed reverence for its creator, have 

 hitherto covered with opprobrium — the promise and potency of all ter- 

 restrial life." 



*Par parenthesis, it may here be affirmed that Intelligence, in its ultimate 

 analysis is nothing more nor less than sensitiveness to, and capability of being 

 *'moved" by the motions — molar and molecular — of other bodies (the nan ego); 

 and the process of ratiocination consists of consciousness in series, of the ratios 

 between the different kinds and degrees of motion affecting us. 



