

♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[January 1, 1887. 



subtle transmutations during the vast periods that the earth 

 has been a possible abode of life. And is not the transmu- 

 tation of the inorganic into the organic ceaselessly going on 

 within the kboritory of the plant under the agency of 

 chlorophyll] 



The ultimate cause which, bringing certain lifeless bodies 

 together, gives living matter as the result, is a profound 

 mystery. But, although the living thing affects us much 

 more nearly than lifeless stones and rain, it hides no pro- 

 founder mystery than they. The " affinities," as in our 

 ignorance we name them, which lock the elements into 

 ifeautifal crystalline forms, are no whit less wonderful than 

 the motions in matter through which the same elements 

 manifest the phenomena of life. The origin of life is 

 not a more stupendous problem to solve than the origin 

 of water. Both protoplasm and water liave properties 

 that do not belong to the individual atoms which com- 

 pose them, and the greater complexity of the living 

 compound does not constitute a difference in kind, but 

 only in degree. It does not seem, after all, such a far cry 

 from the crystal to the amccba as from the amo'ba to Plato 

 and Newton. The crystal and the amo'ba take their place 

 as independent products of physical and chemical change, 

 and cannot do other than obey the law of their development. 

 The crysta's of rock-salt, determined liy the mutual action 

 of the'attractive and repellent poles of their atoms, dispose 

 themselves as cubes ; the crystals of snow as hexagons ; of 

 sulphur as rhomboids; and the protoplasmic atoms, obeying 

 their polarities and charged with separating enex'gics, dispose 

 themselves " each after his kind." I'ut whilst the crystal 

 grows by accretion at the surface, although even this dis- 

 tinction has its rare exceptions, the cell grows by assimi- 

 lation or intussusception, i.e. by inllowing of nutrition 

 amongst all its parts. Speaking relatively, for nothing is 

 absolutely motionless, the crystal is stable, iriesponsive ; 

 the cell is plastic, unstable, responsive, adapting itself to 

 the slightest variation; it "stoops to conquer," and so 

 undergoes ceaseless modification by interaction with its ever- 

 changing environment. Life involves delicacy of con- 

 struction ; hence the transient nature of the organic in 

 contrast to the abiding nature of the inorganic. And, 

 strange as it may seem, separation is life; integration is 

 death. For life is due to the sun's r.adiant energy, which, 

 setting up separative movements, enables the plant to con- 

 vert, through its mysteriou.s alchemy, the lifeless into the 

 living, thus forming energetic compounds which ai-e used, 

 partly by the thrifty plant for its own vital needs, and 

 largely by the spendthrift animal for its nutrition, to repair 

 waste and maintain functions. Ultimately the energy thus 

 derived from the sun directly by the plant, and indirectly 

 by the animal, passes into space ; and " the dust returns to 

 the earth as it was." 



Turning to mental phenomena, from its lowest manifesta- 

 tions in the simplest reflex action of the amceba and the 

 sundew when touched, to its highest manifestations in con- 

 sciousness or self-knowledge, we find the connection between 

 it .and the bodily movements a greater crux than the con- 

 nection Ijetween the inorganic and the organic. We know- 

 that all the thoughts we think, and all the emotions we feel, 

 involve aphysicalproccss ; that is to say, they areaccompanied 

 by certain chemical changes, molecular vibrations in nerve- 

 tissue, involving waste or large expenditure of energy, which is 

 repaired Ijy food. We luiow that the healthy working of the 

 braindepends uiiun nourishment, upon abstinence from excess, 

 upon freedom from injuvy. Starve or stun or stupefy a 

 man, let palsy or paralysis afflict him, and the complex 

 machinery is thrown out of gear. And we know that the 

 larger the projiortion of brain to body, and the more numerous 

 and intricate the furrows and creases iu the grey matter 



of the bi-ain, the higher in the life-scale are the mental 

 powers. 



But the gulf between consciousness and the movements of 

 the molecules of nerve-matter, measurable as these are, is 

 impassable ; we can follow the steps of the mechanical pro- 

 cesses of nerve-changes till we leach tlie threshold across 

 which things are known by us, and Ijeyond that we cannot 

 go. We can neither affirm nor deny ; we can only confess 

 ignorance. " If anyone says that consciousness cannot exist 

 except in the relation of cause and effect with certain organic 

 molecules, I must ask how he knows that; and if he says 

 that it can, I must put the same question." * That is the 

 impregnable position of physical science as defined by its 

 greatest living expositor. " .Soul is only known to us in a 

 brain, but the special note of soul is that it is callable of 

 existing without a brain, or after death." t That is the 

 unveiitiable assumption of dogmatic theology. 



INDIAN MYTHS. 



By " Stella Occidens." 



DAWN. 



1 K whole theogony and philosophy of the 

 ancient world," says Max Midler, " centred 

 in the Dawn, the mother of the bright 

 gods, of the Sun in his various aspects of 

 the morn, the day, the spring, her.self the 

 brilliant image and visage of immortality." 

 We find this likewise in the mythology of 

 the American Indian races. Michabo, 

 ISIauabozho, and Hiawatha are names which mean the Great 

 Light, Spirit of Dawn ; and Michabo,! as he is sometimes 

 called, means the (4reat White (Jne. He dispels the dark- 

 ness, and his weapons are thunder and lightning, according 

 to the Dacotahs. He is supposed to have engaged in a 

 desperate struggle with his father, the West Wind, to 

 avenge the death of his mother. When he had succeeded 

 in driving his opponent to the brink of the world, the West 

 Wind cried out, " Hold, my son, you know my power, and 

 that it is impossiljle to kill me ! " 



This struggle is supposed to represent the daily encounter 

 between light and darkness that knows no end, both op- 

 ponents being invincible. The same myth is related with 

 regard to Hiawatha among the Iroquois, Manabozho and 

 Missibizi among the Algonkins and Chippeways. All these 

 names mean Dawn in the diflerent dialects of these races. 



A curious likeness to the story of Jonah can be tr.aced in 

 the account of the heroes Manabozho and Hiawatha. Whilst 

 angling for Nahma, the King of Fishes, the monster sud- 

 denly dai-ted upward. 



Opened Lis great .i;iws, and swalloweil 

 Botli canoe and lli.awatha. 

 Down into that d.arksome cavern 

 Plunged the headlong Hiawatha, 

 As a log on some black river 

 Shoots and plunges down the rapids. 



Hiawatha felt his way iu the darkness, and pidled liis 

 canoe across Nahma's throat. After a great struggle, 

 Hiawatha killed the great fish, and, with the assistance 

 of the seagulls, who pecked an opening in the ribs of the 

 monster, he was soon released from his dark prison. 



* Professor Huxley on '• Science and Morals," Fortiiightlij Meeien; 

 December 1886. 



t Principal TiiUoch, "Modern Theories in Philosophy and Reli- 

 gion," p. 328. 



; IJrintoii, " Jlyths of the New World," p. 179. 



