172 The Three Beginnings. 



is the mystery." And that mystery no scalpel, 

 no microscope, will ever explain. " Mechanical 

 balances the most delicate, chemical tests the 

 most sensitive, are all powerless there. And 

 why ? Simply because consciousness arid they 

 are incommensurable : of another nature, of 

 another world from the first, sundered from 

 each other by the whole diameter of being." 



But whence came this "other world," this 

 new " incommensurable " ? and whence the 

 "great gulf," the impassable chasm, which 

 marks the new beginning ? Mens agitat 

 molem ; but that implies for Mens a special 

 nature, a special relation, and a special origin. 

 What was that origin ? and whence ? 



Whatever its source, whatever its nature, 

 the one broad patent fact remains alike in- 

 dubitable and incontestable : there was a de- 

 finite epoch in which the human mind first 

 came into being. Thought began to be. In- 

 telligence, self-conscious, emerged though not 

 from the world of matter to be enthroned in 

 the World of Mind. Whence came it ? Who 

 will tell us? For to Agnostic Evolution a 

 phenomenon so portentous is absolutely fatal. 

 Scientific Materialism can give no account of 

 it It is perfectly "UNACCOUNTABLE." 



And yet it is true ! 



