Sophisms. 103 



Is no answer. They make no sign. No such 

 promise or potency is exhibited, and it is there- 

 fore no wonder that it is not discerned. But 

 alter the conditions of discernment, says Dr. 

 Tyndall, and then " I can imagine not only the 

 vegetable, but the mineral world, responsiv.e to 

 the proper irritants." l Not, "I have discerned"; 

 nor even I can discern ; but only " I can 

 imagine ! " 



And here the matter might be left, were it 

 not that Dr. Tyndall has himself compelled us 

 to ask whether he has not estimated too highly 

 his own power of imagination. For how can 

 even he imagine that which he himself tells us 

 is unimaginable ? The passage from physics 

 to consciousness, he tells us, 2 " is unthinkable." 

 "You cannot satisfy the human understanding 

 in its demand for logical continuity between 

 molecular processes and the phenomena of con- 

 sciousness. This is a rock on which materialism 

 must inevitably split whenever it pretends to be 

 a complete philosophy of life." 8 Nor would 

 the result be altered if even the experiment 

 could be made under the altered conditions 



1 "Materialism and its Opponents," Fortnightly Re- 

 view, vol. xviii. p. 595. " Fragments of Science/' Intro- 

 duction. 



Ibid, p. 589. * " Belfast Address," p. 33. 



