Mystery 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



472 



stone, or the formation of a chemical com- 

 bination, we arrive, by discovering and es- 

 tablishing the active causes for example, 

 the gravitation or the chemical affinity at 

 other remoter phenomena, which in them- 

 selves are mysterious. This arises from the 

 limitation or relativity of our powers of un- 

 derstanding. We must not forget that hu- 

 man knowledge is absolutely limited, and 

 possesses only a relative extension. It is, 

 in its essence, limited by the very nature of 

 our senses and of our brains. HAECKEL 

 History of Creation, vol. i, ch. 2, p. 31. (K. 

 P. & Co., 1899.) 



2312. MYSTERY OF CHEMICAL 

 ACTION Force Apparently Inoperative or 

 Lost Faith in Law Leads to New Discover- 

 ies. It is perfectly true that we cannot al- 

 ways trace a force by its actions, tho we 

 admit its conservation. Oxygen and hydro- 

 gen may remain mixed for years without 

 showing any signs of chemical activity; 

 they may be made at any given instant to 

 exhibit active results, and then assume a 

 new state, in which again they appear as 

 passive bodies. Now, tho we cannot clearly 

 explain what the chemical force is doing, 

 that is to say, what are its effects during 

 the three periods before, at, and after the 

 active combination, and only by very vague 

 assumption can approach to a feeble concep- 

 tion of its respective states, yet we do not 

 suppose the creation of a new portion of 

 force for the active moment of time, or the 

 less believe that the forces belonging to the 

 oxygen and hydrogen exist unchanged in 

 their amount at all these periods, tho vary- 

 ing in their results. A part may at the 

 active moment be thrown off as mechanical 

 force, a part as radiant force, a part dis- 

 posed of we know not how; but believing, 

 by the principle of conservation, that it is 

 not increased or destroyed, our thoughts are 

 directed to search out what at all and every 

 period it is doing, and how it is to be recog- 

 nized and measured. A problem, founded on 

 the physical truth of Nature, is stated, and, 

 being stated, is on the way to its solution. 

 FARADAY The Conservation of Force (in 

 Correlation and Conservation of Forces), p. 

 380. (A., 1898.) 



2313. MYSTERY OF CONSCIOUS- 

 NESS Memory Admits of No Explanation. 

 A word, in closing, about the metaphysics 

 involved in remembering. According to the 

 assumptions of this book, thoughts accom- 

 pany the brain's workings, and those 

 thoughts are cognitive of realities. The 

 whole relation is one which we can only 

 write down empirically, confessing that no 

 glimmer of explanation of it is yet in sight. 

 That brains should grive rise to a knowing 

 consciousness at all, this is the one mystery 

 which returns, no matter of what sort the 

 consciousness and of what sort the knowl- 

 edge may be. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 

 16, p. 687. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



2314. Molecular Motion 



Cannot Explain Thought and Feeling Two 

 Incomprehensibles. Four years ago I wrote 

 thus : " Do states of consciousness enter as 

 links into the chain of antecedence and se- 

 quence which gives rise to bodily actions? 

 Speaking for myself it is certain that I have 

 no power of imagining such states inter- 

 posed between the molecules of the brain 

 and influencing the transference of motion 

 among the molecules. The thing " eludes all 

 mental presentation." Hence an iron 

 strength seems to belong to the logic which 

 claims for the brain an automatic action 

 uninfluenced by consciousness. But it is, I 

 believe, admitted by those who hold the 

 automaton theory that states of conscious- 

 ness are produced by the motion of the mole- 

 cules of the brain; and this production of 

 consciousness by molecular motion is to me 

 quite as unpresentable to the mental vision 

 as the production of molecular motion by 

 consciousness. If I reject one result I must 

 reject both. /, however, reject neither, and 

 thus stand in the presence of two Incompre- 

 hensibles instead of one Incomprehensible." 

 Here I secede from the automaton theory, 

 tho maintained by friends who have all my 

 esteem, and fall back upon the avowal which 

 occurs with such wearisome iteration 

 throughout the foregoing pages; namely, 

 my own utter incapacity to grasp the prob- 

 lem. TYNDALL Fragments of Science, vol. ii, 

 ch. 15, p. 407. (A., 1900.) 



2315. 



The All-embracing 



Problem Explanations that Do Not Ex- 

 plain. Why not " pool " our mysteries 

 into one great mystery, the mystery that 

 brain-processes occasion knowledge at all? 

 It is surely no different mystery to feel my- 

 self by means of one brain-process writing 

 at this table now, and by means of a differ- 

 ent brain-process a year hence to remember 

 myself writing. All that psychology can do 

 is to seek to determine what the several 

 brain-processes are. . . . But of " im- 

 ages reproduced," and " claiming to repre- 

 sent," and " put together by a unifying 

 actus," I have been silent because such ex- 

 pressions either signify nothing or they are 

 cnly roundabout ways of simply saying that 

 the past is known when certain brain con- 

 ditions are fulfilled, and it seems to me that 

 the straightest and shortest way of saying 

 that is the best. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, 

 ch. 16, p. 689. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



2316. MYSTERY OF EVIL Optimism 

 of Leibnitz Limitation of the Divine Power 

 Plato Finds Matter the Source of All 

 Evil. Leibnitz, in his famous theory of 

 optimism, argued that a perfect world is in 

 the nature of things impossible, but that 

 the world in which we live is the best of pos- 

 sible worlds. The limitation of the Crea- 

 tor's power is made somewhat more explicit- 

 ly by Plato, who regarded the world as the 

 imperfect realization of a divine idea that 

 in itself is perfect. It is owing to the in- 



