TRUTH 



When we conceive the phronema as the real "organ 

 of the soul" in the strict sense — that is to say, as the 

 central instrument of thought, knowledge, reason, and 

 consciousness — we may at once lay down the principle 

 that there is an anatomical unity of organ corresponding 

 to the physiological and generally admitted unity of 

 thought and consciousness. As we assign to this 

 phronema a most elaborate anatomical structure, we 

 may call it the organic apparatus of the soul, in the 

 same sense in which we conceive the eye as a pur- 

 posively arranged apparatus of vision. It is true that 

 we have as yet only made a beginning of the finer 

 anatomic analysis of the phronema, and are not yet able 

 to mark off its field decisively from the neighboring 

 spheres of sense and motion. With the most improved 

 means of modern histology, the most perfect microscopes 

 and coloring methods, we are only just beginning to 

 penetrate into the marvellous structure of the phronetal 

 cells and their complicated grouping. Yet we have 

 advanced far enough to regard it as the most perfect 

 piece of cell-machinery and the highest product of 

 organic evolution. Millions of highly differentiated 

 phronetal cells form the several stations of this tele- 

 graphic system, and thousands of millions of the finest 

 nerve-fibrils represent the wires which connect the 

 stations with one another and with the sense-centres on 

 the one hand, and with the motor-centres on the other. 

 Comparative anatomy, moreover, acquaints us with the 

 long and gradual development which the phronema has 

 undergone within the higher class of the vertebrates, 

 from the amphibia and reptiles up to the birds and 

 mammals, and, within the last class, from the mono- 

 tremes and marsupials up to the apes and men. The 

 human brain seems to us to-day to be the greatest 

 marvel that plasm, or the "living substance," has pro- 

 duced in the course of millions of years. 



17 



