MA TERIA LISM. 40? 



brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is incon- 

 ceivable as a result of mechanics. Granted that a definite 

 thought, and a definite molecular action in the brain, 

 occur simultaneously; we do not possess the intellectual 

 organ, nor apparently any rudiment of the organ, which 

 would enable us to pass, by a process of reasoning, from 

 the one to the other. They appear together, but we do 

 not know why. Were our minds and senses so expanded, 

 strengthened, and illuminated, as to enable us to see and 

 feel the very molecules of the brain; were we capable of 

 following all their motions, all their groupings, all their 

 electric discharges, if such there be; and were we inti- 

 mately acquainted with the corresponding states of thought 

 and feeling, we should be as far as ever from the solution 

 of the problem, "How are these physical processes con- 

 nected with the facts of consciousness?" The chasm 

 between the two classes of phenomena would still remain 

 intellectually impassable. Let the consciousness of love, 

 for example, be associated with a right-handed spiral 

 motion of the molecules of the brain, and the consciousness 

 of hate with a left-handed spiral motion. We should then 

 know, when we love, that the motion is in one direction, 

 and, when we hate, that the motion is in the other; but 

 the " WHY?" would remain as unanswerable as before. 



In affirming that the growth of the body is mechanical, 

 and that thought, as exercised by us, has its correlative in 

 the physics of the brain, I think the position of the 

 " Materialist" is stated, as far as that position is a tenable 

 one. I think the materialist will be able finally to main- 

 tain this position against all attacks; but I do not think, 

 in the present condition of the human mind, that he can 

 pass beyond this position. I do not think he is entitled to 

 say that his molecular groupings, and motions, explain 

 everything. In reality they explain nothing. The utmost 

 he can affirm is the association of two classes of phenomena, 

 of whose real bond of union he is in absolute ignorance. 

 The problem of the connection of body and soul is as 

 insoluble, in its modern form, as it was in the pre-scientific 

 ages. Phosphorus is known to enter into the composition 

 of the human brain, and a trenchant German writer has 

 exclaimed, "Ohne Phosphor, kein Gedanke!" That may 

 or may not be the case; but even if we knew it to be the 

 case, the knowledge would not lighten our darkness. On 



