Mind 

 Minerals 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



450 



pecially, too, in the New Continent, where 

 the summits of the lofty Cordilleras pene- 

 trate the confines of the aerial ocean sur- 

 rounding our globe, and where the same 

 subterranean forces that once raised these 

 mountain chains still shake them to their 

 foundation and threaten their downfall. 

 HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. i, int., p. 27. (H., 

 1897.) 



2204. MIND OVERWHELMED BY 

 VAST PERIODS OF TIME The chief cause 

 of our natural unwillingness to admit that 

 one species has given birth to other and dis- 

 tinct species is that we are always slow in 

 admitting great changes of which we do not 

 see the steps. The difficulty is the same as 

 that felt by so many geologists, when Lyell 

 first insisted that long lines of inland cliffs 

 had been formed and great valleys excavated 

 by the agencies which we still see at work. 

 The mind cannot possibly grasp the full 

 meaning of the term of even a million years ; 

 it cannot add up and perceive the full effects 

 of many slight variations, accumulated dur- 

 ing an almost infinite number of genera- 

 tions. DARWIN Origin of Species, ch. 15, p. 

 497. (Burt.) 



2205. MIND PREFERS CONCRETE 

 TO ABSTRACT I can consider the hand, 

 the eye, the nose, each by itself abstracted 

 or separated from the rest of the body. 

 But then, whatever hand or eye I imagine, 

 it must have some particular shape and col- 

 or. Likewise the idea of man that I frame 

 to myself must be either of a white, or a 

 black, or a tawny, a straight, or a crooked, 

 a tall, or a low, or a middle-sized man. I 

 cannot by any effort of thought conceive 

 the abstract idea above described. And it 

 is equally impossible for me to form the 

 abstract idea of motion distinct from the 

 body moving, and which is neither swift 

 nor slow, curvilinear nor rectilinear; and 

 the like may be said of all other abstract 

 general ideas whatsoever. BERKELEY Prin- 

 ciples of Human Knowledge, int., p. 178. 

 (L., 1874.) 



2206. MIND READILY REPRODUCES 

 FAMILIAR IMPRESSIONS -fo Artist's Few 

 Lines Spectator Sees the Face Hence Ready 

 Illusion. Another great fact that has come 

 to light in the investigation of these illu- 

 sions is that oft-recurring and familiar 

 types of experience leave permanent dis- 

 positions in the mind. What has been fre- 

 quently perceived is perceived more and 

 more readily. It follows from this that the 

 mind will be habitually disposed to form 

 the corresponding mental images, and to in- 

 terpret impressions by help of these. The 

 range of artistic suggestion depends on this. 

 A clever draftsman can indicate a face 

 by a few rough touches, and this is due to 

 the fact that the spectator's mind is so 

 familiarized, through recurring experience 

 and special interest, with the object, that 

 it is ready to construct the requisite mental 

 image at the slightest external suggestion. 



And hence the risk of hasty and illusory 

 interpretation. SULLY Illusions, ch. 5, p. 

 91. (A., 1897.) 



2207. MIND REVEALED THROUGH 



MATTER Care of Body Important Oxygen. 

 Ministers to Mental and Spiritual Life. 

 Mind, like force, is known to us only 

 through matter. Take, then, what hypoth- 

 esis you will consider matter as an instru- 

 ment through which the insulated mind ex- 

 ercises its powers, or consider both as so 

 inextricably mixed that they stand or fall 

 together; from both points of view the care 

 of the body is equally important. The mo- 

 rality of clean blood ought to be one of the 

 best lessons taught us by our pastors and 

 masters. The physical is the substratum of 

 the spiritual, and this fact ought to give to 

 the food we eat and to the air we breathe a 

 transcendental significance. Boldly and 

 truly writes Mr. Ruskin, " Whenever you 

 throw your window wide open in the morn- 

 ing, you let in Athena, as wisdom and fresh 

 air at the same instant; and whenever you 

 draw a pure, long, full breath of right 

 heaven, you take Athena into your heart, 

 through your blood, and with the blood into- 

 thoughts of the brain." No higher value 

 than this could be assigned to atmospheric 

 oxygen. TYNDALL Hours of Exercise in the- 

 Alps, ch. 25, p. 301. (A., 1898.) 



2208. MIND, THE EVOLUTION OF 



Illustrated in a Savage An Incalculable 

 Creature to Civilized Man. No one should 

 pronounce upon the evolution of mind till 

 he has seen a savage. By this is not meant 

 the show savage of an Australian town, or 

 the quay Kafir of a South-African port, or 

 the Reservation Indian of a Western State; 

 but the savage as he is in reality, and as he- 

 may be seen to-day by any who care to look 

 upon so weird a spectacle. No study from 

 the life can compare with this in interest or 

 in pathos, nor stir so many strange emotions 

 in the mind of a thoughtful man. To sit 

 with this incalculable creature in the heart 

 of the great forest; to live with him in his 

 natural home as the guest of Nature, to 

 watch his ways and moods and try to resolve 

 the ceaseless mystery of his thoughts this, 

 whether the existing savage represents the 

 primitive savage or not, is to open one of 

 the workshops of creation and behold the 

 half-finished product from which humanity 

 has been evolved. DRUMMOND Ascent of 

 Man, p. 142. (J. P., 1900.) 



2209. MIND, THE MECHANICAL THE- 

 ORY OF Ideas Like Bricks of the Structure. 

 An influential school of psychology, seeking 

 to avoid haziness of outline, has tried to 

 make things appear more exact and scien- 

 tific by making the analysis more sharp. 

 The various fields of consciousness, accord- 

 ing to this school, result from a definite 

 number of perfectly definite elementary 

 mental states, mechanically associated inta 

 a mosaic or chemically combined. Accord- 

 ing to some thinkers Spencer, for example, 



