449 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Mind 



after all, is due to the tongue, the material 

 instrument of reason, and to language, the 

 outward expression of the inner life. 

 DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, ch. 4, p. 152. 

 (J. P., 1900.) 



2199. MIND MUST BE TRAINED 

 TO SOUND THINKING Science Cultivates 

 Orderly Habits of Thought. The system of 

 mind-gymnastics is one which is imperative 

 on all ages and conditions. In no age can 

 its . advantages be more thoroughly under- 

 stood than in this controversial epoch, when 

 the oldest and most respected of ideas are 

 ruthlessly deposed from their niches, and 

 supplanted by new and advanced codes of 

 opinion. To have our young trained to 

 " think," and our elders to judiciously weigh 

 and consider all the matters of life; to teach 

 men and women how to use their reason; to 

 enable them successfully to grapple with the 

 great difficulties of trade and labor, of sci- 

 ence and art, of morality and religion such 

 are the objects which this system of mind- 

 training has in view. And the study of 

 natural science accomplishes these great 

 ends chiefly by inducing orderly habits of 

 thought. The very essence of this study 

 lies in the cultivation of the observant facul- 

 ties, and in the true culture of the senses 

 to appreciate, and, through appreciation, to 

 understand and enjoy the objects which are 

 set before the mind. ANDREW WILSON Sci- 

 ence-Culture for the Masses, p. 27. (Hum., 

 1888.) 



2200. MIND, MYSTERIES OF, RE- 

 VEALED IN MUSIC It has always struck 

 me as a mystery peculiarly interesting and 

 wonderful that in the .theory of music, in 

 the physical and technical foundations of 

 this art, which above all others seems to 

 create in the mind the most immaterial, 

 evanescent, and tender states of conscious- 

 ness, incalculable and indescribable, that es- 

 pecially in this, the science of purest and 

 strictest thought mathematics should 

 prove itself preeminently productive. Thor- 

 ough-bass is a kind of applied mathematics. 

 As for musical intervals, divisions of time, 

 and so forth, numerical fractions and even 

 at times logarithms play a prominent part. 

 Mathematics and music the most glaring 

 opposites possible in human thought! And 

 yet they are connected, mutually sustained. 

 It is as if they would demonstrate that 

 hidden consensus of all activities of our 

 mind which in the revelations of genius en- 

 ables us to forefeel the unconscious utter- 

 ances of an intelligence mysteriously active. 

 HELMHOLTZ On the Physiological Causes 

 of Harmony in Music (Popular Scientific 

 Lectures, p. 63.J (Translated for Scientific 

 Side-Lights.) 



2201. MIND NOT DEGRADED BY 

 ASSOCIATION WITH THE ANIMAL 

 BODY Electricity Not Materialized by Pass- 

 ing through Metal. So godlike a gift is 

 intellect, so wondrous a thing is conscious- 

 ness, that to link them with the animal 



world seems to trifle with the profoundest 

 distinctions in the universe. Yet to associ- 

 ate these supersensuous things with the ani- 

 mal kingdom is not to identify them with 

 the animal body. Electricity is linked with 

 metal rods; it is not, therefore, metallic. 

 DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, ch. 4, p. 20. ( J. 

 P., 1900.) 



2202. MIND OF MAN AND BEAST 



Resemblance in Action Indicates Mental 

 Likeness- Monkeys and Children. At the 

 Zoological Gardens one may sometimes see 

 a handful of nuts divided between the mon- 

 keys inside the bars and the children out- 

 side, and it is instructive to notice how near- 

 ly both go through the same set of move- 

 ments, looking, approaching, elbowing, grasp- 

 ing, cracking, munching, swallowing, hold- 

 ing out their hands for more. Up to this 

 level the monkeys show all the mental like- 

 ness to man that their bodily likeness would 

 lead us to expect. . . . The boy knows 

 a nut by sight, wishes to renew the pleasant 

 taste of former nuts, and directs his hands 

 and mouth to grasp, crack, and eat. But 

 here are complicated mental processes. 

 Knowing a nut by sight, or having an idea 

 of a nut, means that there are grouped to- 

 gether in the child's mind memories of a 

 number of past sensations, which have so 

 become connected by experience that a par- 

 ticular form and color, feel and weight, 

 lead to the expectation of a particular fla- 

 vor. Of what here takes place in the boy's 

 mind we can judge, tho by no means clearly, 

 from what we know about our own thoughts 

 and what others have told us about theirs. 

 What takes place in the monkeys' minds we 

 can only guess by watching their actions, 

 but these are so like the human as to be 

 most readily explained by considering their 

 brain-work also to be like the human, tho 

 less clear and perfect. It seems as tho a 

 beast's idea or thought of an object may 

 be, as our own, a group of remembered sen- 

 sations compacted into a whole. TYLOR An- 

 thropology, ch. 2, p. 48. (A., 1899.) 



2203. MIND OF OBSERVER DE- 

 TERMINES HIS VIEW OF NATURE 



It may seem a rash attempt to endeavor to 

 separate into its different elements the mag- 

 ic power exercised upon our minds by the 

 physical world, since the character of the 

 landscape and of every imposing scene in 

 Nature depends so materially upon the mu- 

 tual relation of the ideas and sentiments 

 simultaneously excited in the mind o'f the 

 observer. The powerful effect exercised by 

 Nature springs, as it were, from the con- 

 nection and unity of the impressions and 

 emotions produced; and we can only trace 

 their different sources by analyzing the in- 

 dividuality of objects and the diversity of 

 forces. The richest and most varied ele- 

 ments for pursuing an analysis of this na- 

 ture present themselves to the eyes of the 

 traveler in the scenery of Southern Asia, in 

 the Great Indian Archipelago, and more es- 



