286 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



images of the reality but of relativity only. We per- 

 ceive what suffices to us for the thing itself, by certain 

 attributes, or properties, such as, form, color, resist- 

 ance, motion, sound, odor, and taste. The thing, thus 

 denned, is real to the perceiver, and is the "thing-in- 

 itself" to us. We know ourselves by the functions of 

 our bodies. What we have been calling "mind" is 

 not an entity distinct from the body, but is best per- 

 ceived as the psychical function of the individual or- 

 ganic body, considered as a phenomenal ego. Con- 

 sciousness is a condition, ever varying, produced by 

 the images above spoken of, forming, and reforming, 

 in the sensory centers, by the incidence of objective 

 energy. 



How LANGUAGE Is EVOLVED. In ordinary conversa- 

 tion, and in nearly all literature, the mind is spoken 

 of as a producing entity, distinct from the body. 

 Language, descriptive of this phenomenon, has been 

 evolved from this conception. That is, there is very 

 little language capable of expressing other than the 

 idea of entity, and the power of that entity to pro- 

 duce the psychic phenomena, every moment observed. 

 For instance, the phenomenon of "absentmindedness" 

 is ordinarily spoken of as "the wandering of the mind." 

 That is, it is a thing. an entity, that moves away 

 from the body, or, at least, leaves the object, to which 

 the eyes, or some of the senses, are directed. This 

 language does not express the psychical phenomenon 

 taking place, because the present conception of that 

 phenomenon is of such recent origin. That is a pro- 

 cess, unconsciously and instantaneously occurring in 

 the appropriate brain centers, but which, in conse- 

 quence of its being heretofore unknown to the real 

 makers of language, viz., the masses of articulate be- 



