676 The Outline of Science 



possess down to and beyond the sub-conscious types of mind that 

 hypnotism and psycho-analysis reveal. AVe have only to be com- 

 pletely logical and believe that something of the same general 

 nature as mind exists in all life, to make the further step, and 

 believe that it exists, even in the matter from which life sprang. 

 In that case, as G. H. Parker has well said, we would have to 

 enlarge our definition of matter, for the properties of "matter." 

 that is to say, of the world-stuff, would include mind. 



Perhaps an analogy will make the argument clearer. We 

 know that every time a muscle contracts a slight: electrical dis- 

 charge is produced. The same is true of a gland each time it 

 secretes; and probably no process of life is possible without some 

 minute accompanying electrical charge. But these electrical 

 charges are only just measurable, and in the vast majority of 

 organisms are of no use whatever to their possessors. In the 

 electric eel, however, and one or two other fish, certain muscles of 

 the body have been modified to form electrical organs, in which 

 the small electrical charges are added to each other, so that their 

 cumulative effect is a serious shock. Electrical change, that is to 

 say, occurs in all organisms inevitably, because of the way they 

 are made; but in these few animals special organs have been 

 evolved for intensifying electrical change, and so making it of use 

 to its possessor. In the same way, if we think of the processes of 

 matter as always involving some rudimentary, infinitesimal 

 change of the general kind we call mental, it appears that, in the 

 course of evolution, organs (which we call brains) have been 

 evolved for intensifying these changes, and so giving rise to 

 mental activity of direct use to its possessors. 



Theories of the Origin of Life 



There have been other theories of the origin of life on this 

 planet for instance, that its germs were transported here on 

 meteorites from other stars ; but this only removes the problem of 

 life's origin one step back, and does not solve it. 



