SIXTH LECTURE. 



KNOWN RELATIONS BETWEEN MIND AND 

 MATTER. 



A. E. DOLBEAR. 



WE have a body of knowledge which we call science. In a 

 few a very few instances it is so far perfected we can use 

 it for prevision, and thus we make almanacs, learn when the 

 moon will be eclipsed, and when the tide will come in, how to 

 make a steam-engine or a dynamo to do a specific amount of 

 work, and so on ; but for nearly every question in which 

 humanity, as a whole, has an immediate interest there is now 

 no satisfactory answer, which, broadly stated, means that there 

 is yet no science which can be applied to them in the same 

 sense as it can be applied to astronomical problems. The best 

 one can do is to hold any opinion very gently, and be ready to 

 abandon it at once if occasion comes. 



"The science of life," that is what we all want to under- 

 stand in order to get the most out of it. That there is a 

 possible science of life everybody believes. In every great 

 emergency among men there are always a number of persons 

 who are ready to tell us about it, and what should be done to 

 avoid catastrophe. When Jerusalem was in a state of siege 

 there were several who claimed to be the Messiah, each promis- 

 ing deliverance if the people would but hearken to them ; but 

 in the multitude of such Messiahs, how could one judge which 

 was the true one except he should actually deliver them from 

 their troubles, whether they believed in him or not ? The test 

 for one's ability is what he does, not what he promises to do. 

 So there are teachers and preachers and makers of books who 

 tell how it is, and what to do, yet we are no wiser, and society 



