Scientific Sophisms. 287 



the water in a ditch vibrates too ; but the ditch 

 hears nothing for all that ; and my hearing is 

 still to me as blessed a mystery as ever, and the 

 interval between the ditch and me, quite as 

 great If the trembling sound in my ears was 

 once of the marriage-bell which began my 

 happiness, and is now of the passing-bell which 

 ends it, the difference between those two sounds 

 to me cannot be counted by the number of' 

 concussions. There have been some curious 

 speculations lately as to the conveyance of 

 mental consciousness by ' brain-waves.' What 

 does it matter how it is conveyed ? The 

 consciousness itself is not a wave. It may be 

 accompanied here or there by any quantity of 

 quivers and shakes, up or down, of anything 

 you can find in the universe that is shakeable 

 what is that to me ? My friend is dead, and my 

 according to modern views vibratory sorrow 

 is not one whit less, or less mysterious, to me, 

 than my old quiet one." l 



Whence came then this emergence of Per- 

 sonal Consciousness among the world of living 

 creatures ? From what source have we derived 

 that sense of individual personality which con- 

 stitutes "an altogether new and original fact, 

 one which cannot be conceived as developed or 

 1 Ruskin : ' Athena," p. 70. 



