442 Cosmic philosophy. [pi. m. 



inquiry would be to furnisli algebraic equations for every 

 curve described by every particle of matter during the entire 

 series of transformations, from the arrested molar motions of 

 the gravitating particles of the sun, down to the endlessly- 

 complex molecular motions which take place within the 

 cerebral tissue of a mathematician engaged in solving partial 

 differential equations. However stupendous such an achieve- 

 ment may seem to us who are as yet in the callow infancy 

 of scientific inquiry, there is nevertheless no radical ab- 

 surdity involved in conceiving it as theoretically possible. 

 But now let us suppose all this actually achieved. Let us 

 suppose physical inquiry to have reached its uttermost con- 

 ceivable limit, having reduced the whole problem of motion, 

 in all its myriad manifestations, in both inorganic and 

 organic nature, to a purely algebraic problem, for the solu- 

 tion of which the requisite algebiaic devices are at hand ; 

 and let us consider what we have thus achieved. Have we 

 made the first step toward the resolution of psychical pheno- 

 mena into modes of motion ? Obviously we have not. The 

 closed circuit of motion, motion, motion, remains just what 

 it was before. No conceivable advance in physical discovery 

 can get us out of this closed circuit, and into this circuit 

 psychical phenomena do not enter. Psychical phenomena 

 stand outside this circuit, parallel with that brief segment of 

 it which is made up of molecular motions in nerve-tissue. 

 However strict the parallelism may be, within the limits pf 

 our experience, between the phenomena of mind and this 

 segment of the circuit of motions, the task of transcending 

 or abolishing the radical antithesis between the phenomena 

 of mind and the phenomena of motions of matter, must 

 always remain an impracticable task. For in order to 

 transcend or abolish this radical antithesis, we must be pre- 

 pared to show how a given quantity of molecular motion in 

 nerve-tissue can become transformed into a definable amount 

 of ideation or feeling. But this, it is qui ;e safe to say, can 



