COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



the movements of matter. It is with the move- 

 ments, actual or inferred, of certain specific 

 masses of matter, that astronomy in both its 

 branches is concerned. Movements of matter, 

 likewise, in a specific region of the universe, 

 and under specific conditions characteristic of 

 this region, constitute the facts about which 

 geology speculates. We need but remember 

 that nutrition is at bottom merely a process in 

 which certain molecules shift their positions, and 

 that the life of an organism is simply a long- 

 continued series of adjustments and readjust, 

 ments among mutually related and mutually 

 influencing systems of aggregated molecules, in 

 order to see that the fundamental laws of the 

 movements of matter must underlie biology 

 also. And although the phenomena of mind — 

 whether manifested in individuals or in commu- 

 nities — cannot be explained as movements of 

 matter ; yet, as will be hereafter shown, there is 

 no mental phenomenon which does not involve, 

 as its material correlate, some chemical change 

 in nerve-tissue consisting in a redistribution of 

 molecules ; so that in psychology and sociology 

 likewise, our conclusions must become ulti- 

 mately implicated with theorems concerning 

 matter and motion. Thus in every department 

 of concrete science, the leading problem is in 

 some way or other, either directly or indirectly 

 or very remotely, concerned with distributions 

 124 



