268 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[March 27, 1885. 



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PHRENO-COSMISM AND REALISM. 

 [1646] — May I crave space to notice a sentence which seems to 

 militate against the above theory, advocated by "C.X." and myself 

 in these pages and elsewhere, in" a late letter of " Hallyards " ? In 

 [1631] that able disputant writes, apparently inferring that we see 

 things per se, as a^f-umed by vnlgar Realism : — " We have the tes- 

 timony of billions and billions of men that facts [phenomena r] are 

 presented to the senses in the same way." Arguing, hence, that 

 the "phenomena" are envisaged in their absol-dely real, and not 

 in a relative or ideal form. But, surely, that conclusion by no 

 means follows. For, if the organ* of perception be at once tool 

 and workman, it moulds every "thing" according to its own, and 

 not after any other pattern. And as all human brains are pretty 

 much like as peas are alike — there being peas and peas, just as 

 brains and brains — the products will be, so far, both alike as well. 

 Certainly no two individuals see the fame objects, or even the same 

 light, yet we are practically justified in assuming that from struc- 

 tural similarity — not complete identity — of the organ of perception, 

 percepts must appear organically analogous to billions of the same 

 race. But change the structural nature or arrangement of the 

 cerebral organism, and a complete "objective" transformation 

 scene ensues. This result proves that the Ego itself is the active 

 factor in perception and conception, sensation and thought— the 

 virtual creator of all things or nothings, visible and invisible to its 

 consciousness, which can thus only be "coinages of the brain" and 

 6o(?t;y, not as in "Hamlet," fcodi7ess creations. 



Robert Lewins, M.D. 



DOES A UNIVERSE EXIST EXTERIOR TO OURSELVES ? 



[16-17]— Tonr correspondent " Hallyards " objects to idealism 

 on the ground that " certain facts are presented to the senses of 

 all in the same way," and that it is very unlikely that "the whole 

 race, differing on so many subjects of thought and belief, should 

 yet be at one as to certain common phenomena, unless these 

 phenomena are the manifestation of objective existence." There 

 is some cogency in this argument as directed against pure 

 idealism, which, indeed, cannot be seriously held, unless cloaked by 

 that terminology which hides a multitude of metaphysical sins. 

 Pushed to its logical limits, it would involve us in disbelief of the 

 existence of our fellow-creatures, and even of the Ego itself. There 

 is, without doubt, an interaction between the Ego and the sur- 

 rounding universe, and it is not questioned that all our sensations 

 are consequent upon stimuli. The hylo-ide.alist argues, not that 

 stimuli are non-existent, but that a sensation can resemble 

 nothing which is not a sensation, and therefore cannot possibly 

 be like anything which may take place beyond the sphere of 

 mind. To us there is no external world, because all that we know 

 is felt or thought, and is therefore internal. C. N. 



THE FALLACY OF MATERIALISM. 

 [1648j — It may be said of hylo-phenomonology and ontology, 

 as it was said of phrenology, that " there is much which is true that 

 is not new, and much that is new which is not true." It may con- 

 fidently be affirmed that there is no educated thinker wno does 

 not understand the strong point in Berkeley's position, and whc does 

 not thoroughly recogni^e the relativity and limitations of human 



* Organ is in German Werlizcug, i.e., work producer. 



knowledge ; and who, if he has had a taste for Bpecnlation, has not 

 read G. H. Lewes's " Biography of Philosophy " through, and 

 backwards and forwards. This work was published just as I, a lad, 

 was probing the great question of thought. Some one has wisely said 

 that if a man does not settle his philosophy ere he be forty it will be 

 all over with him. All educated thinkers recognise the limitations of 

 the coLscious Ego — know, that our immediate knowledge is of the 

 phantasma, the phenomena, of that Ego. Nevertheless, thinkers 

 firmly believe in the existence of an external world, of which those 

 phenomena are, for the most part, the telegrams ; of these the 

 scientist records the order and the succession, and from them 

 deduces inferences. This belief in an external universe cannot con- 

 sistently co-exist with the affirmation that the conscious Ego is the 

 only universe ; or, as it has been put by the hylozoists, that " man 

 must be the centre, and man's God — from the relativity of all 

 human gnosis — can only be the creature, the Narcissus-like re- 

 flection of himself." Believe in an external universe, however, and 

 such a conclusion is no longer logically consistent, for that belief 

 permits us to infer, that the microcosmic Ego may be, metaphori- 

 cally, the image of tho macrocosmio Ego. If, however, either 

 Dr. Lewins or " C. N." really believes that his (or her) conscious 

 Ego is the only universe, it is clearly and utterly inconsistent for 

 cither to entertain the notion of external sensation in any shape, 

 either as "matter and vis insita" or anythii'g el.se. But each 

 evidently does believe in an external existence beyond his owa con- 

 scious Ego, and so bylozoism is brought down to tlie terra firma, the 

 'belief of ordinary mortals. C. N. says, in her letter, ante (1630), 

 " It is quite true that we can only infer the existence of matter; 

 but the inference is deducible from an assumption which lies at the 

 basis of all reasoning whatsoever." Precisely so, and it is this 

 assumptioyt which changes the whole field of the Ego's mental 

 vision, loiM (out .' without having recourse to complex and be- 

 wildering nomenclature. W. Cave Thomas. 



P.S. — In my letter (1013) please to read instead of " motion of 

 matter," " notion of matter." 



[With this letter the discussion must conclude. — Ed.] 



SALAMANDERS. 



[1G49] — I am afraid Mr. John B. Gansby will never succeed in 

 getting mates for his two love-sick salamanders, because, though 

 tho salamander (that is, the spotted one — Salamandra maculosa) is 

 very common in central Europe, almost all specimens caught are 

 females, the males being exceedingly scarce. This is a fact well 

 known to herpetologists, though it by no means proves that nature 

 has deprived these gaudy daughters of hers from the bliss of 

 wedded life. It is, indeed, more likely that some phase of the 

 salamander's life, unknown to us, prevents us from finding, with 

 but very few exceptions, the male, who may live hidden from the 

 world, possibly from shyness, more likely from other reasons. As, 

 however, spermatozoa have often been found in the cloaca of the 

 female, one may reasonably assume that a union of the two sexes 

 does take place, though this has never been observed. 



I may add, in consolation to Mr. Gansby, who may desire to see 

 and possess baby salamanders, that the females often bring forth 

 young ones, in some cases even a second time, after having been kept 

 in confinement for a long time. The same has been observed with 

 females of some species of newts. 



The cause of this, if it is not a parthenogenetic development of 

 the eggs, may be that, once the female is fructified, the spermatozoa 

 can develop the eggs after a long period. 



Very little is as yet known of the life-history of this pretty and 

 interesting batraehian, the young of which are born alive as tad- 

 poles with the four legs fully developed, the eggs being hatched in 

 the body of the female. 



Let Mr. Gansby procure newly-caught specimens, and he may 

 possibly have his wish fulfilled. I cannot tell hira the difference 

 between the two sexes, as I have never seen a male salamander, 

 though I have caught and examined many females. J. G. 



THE GROWTH OF PLANTS. 



[1630] — An interesting example of the power of growing plants 

 came under my notice a short while ago. The irresistible force of 

 a growing tree by which a strong wall may be thrown down is well 

 known, but the illustration 1 have alluded to shows quite a different 

 aspect of this power. 



In gathering wild snowdrops in a wood I observed that many of 

 the leaves and flower-stalks had neatly pierced the dead leaves of 

 last autumn which were thickly strewn over them. They neatly 

 fitted the holes they had made in these withered leaves, and in 

 many cases had raised them from the ground afterwards. The 

 wonder appears to be that the growing stem or leaf did not push 

 the light withered foliage aside instead of growing right through 



