THE BELFAST ADDRESS 207 



we have a theory (if it could with any propriety be so 

 called) derived, as were the theories referred to at the 

 beginning of this Address, not from the study of nature, 

 but from the observation of men — a theory which converts 

 the Power whose garment is seen in the visible universe 

 into an Artificer, fashioned after the human model, and 

 acting by broken efforts as man is seen to act. On the 

 other side we have the conception that all we see around 

 us, and all we feel within us — the phenomena of physical 

 nature as well as those of the human mind — have their 

 unsearchable roots in a cosmical life, if I dare apply the 

 term, an infinitesimal span of which is offered to the in- 

 vestigation of man. And even this span is only knowable 

 in part. "We can trace the development of a nervous sys- 

 tem, and correlate with it the parallel phenomena of sensa- 

 tion and thought. We see with undoubting certainty that 

 they go hand in hand. But we try to soar in a vacuum 

 the moment we seek to comprehend the connection be- 

 tween them. An Archimedean fulcrum is here required 

 which the human mind cannot command; and the effort 

 to solve the problem — to borrow a comparison from an 

 illustrious friend of mine — is like that of a man trying 

 to lift himself by his own waistband. All that has been 

 said in this discourse is to be taken in connection with 

 this fundamental truth. When * 'nascent senses" are 

 spoken of, when "the differentiation of a tissue at first 

 vaguely sensitive all over" is spoken of, and when these 

 possessions and. processes are associated with "the modi- 

 fication of an organism by its environment," the same 

 parallelism, without contact, or even approach to contact, 

 is implied. Man the object is separated by an impassable 

 gulf from man the subject. There is no motor energy in 



