352 The Pliilosojjhy of Evolution. 



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somehow as units of force in other connections, and must 

 be treated as such in every use which is made of them in 

 verifying truth or discovering knowledge. So that we may 

 perhaps embolden ourselves at last to question the ultimate 

 character of the feelings as such, since each of us has only 

 a single witness to their existence, and that is his own con- 

 sciousness; and we may rather regard these feelings as 

 merely a subjective or special form of units of force, just 

 as sound is a special form of units of motion. They seem 

 to us at first to be units of feeling existing only in our- 

 selves ; but in everybody else, these same feelings can only 

 be observed as units of force, and the corrected statement 

 would therefore appear to be that feeling is merely a trans- 

 formed force. In other words, we correct our internal 

 experience by the larger generalization of our external ex- 

 perience and arrive at a basis which is at once universal 

 and fruitful. We arrive at the true account of our feelings 

 by an outside knowledge got through them, which, general- 

 ized, shows that they are but one other form of the univer- 

 sal units of force. Here at last we pass over from a barren 

 introspective psychology to a fertile external universe, which 

 includes the introspection as one of its countless manifesta- 

 tions. 



Consciousness is thus found to be as misleading in its 

 primitive reports about itself, as about most other things. 

 Regarded from within it seems to be what is called a 

 spiritual or immaterial faculty, moving about the spaces 

 of the brain with the speed of light, and through the senses 

 cognizing the universe. So subtle, quick, sure, lucid is it 

 that nothing less than the attributes of a God are deemed 

 sufficient to characterize its nature, and it is said to be " made 

 in the image of God." But regarded from without, how 

 different is its aspect. This Godlike apprehension is dis- 

 covered to be absolutely dependent on a brain and various 

 congeries of nerves, which are mere material substances. 

 No brain, no consciousness ; and this fine, internal, lordly 

 self-appreciation is reduced to the modest character of a 

 function of a grey pulp, which the blow of a hammer or a 

 failure of blood-supply can reduce in an instant to complete 

 insensibility. 



The external observation thus corrects or even subverts 

 the internal testimony. The apparently immaterial mind 

 is found to hang upon the material brain as the odor of a 



