SELF 237 



a remarkably small number, of the infinitely large 

 number, of phenomena. The response of the ego to 

 these, is limited to the range of the five organs of sense. 

 There is an infinite number of phenomena, in the imme- 

 diate and remote environment, of which the ego is 

 entirely unconscious. Such an ego being a phenomenon 

 itself, could not penetrate behind the manifestations. 

 It even seems to be far inferior in power, to some of 

 the other phenomena. For instance, matter and motion, 

 in the transformation of a -nebula, to the present 

 status of the universe, has produced in physics, the 

 harmony of the stellar bodies, in chemistry, the atmos- 

 phere and water, and the transforming of the light of 

 the sun, which falling on leaves and flowers, reappears 

 as life. Whether the true theory of light is that of 

 Newton, the corpuscular ; or that of Huygens, the 

 wave, yet we know it conveys to us by photography, 

 and the spectrum, information of the remote parts of 

 the universe, beyond the power of any other known 

 form of matter and motion to convey. It is true, before 

 man can interpret these, he must have a nervous 

 power; yet power of nerve tissue, or thought, or any 

 psychic phenomenon, is tame in comparison with this 

 phenomenon. And these material phenomena, from 

 which the brain of man derives so much knowledge, 

 must have been in operation just as they now are, ages 

 before there was an Ego. 



