THE INTERPRETER I55 



remembered appears to be due to molecular changes 

 " which give rise to a state of consciousness, leaving 

 a more or less persistent structural modification, 

 through which the same molecular changes may be 

 regenerated by other agencies than the cause which 

 first produced them." x 



Of course no sane person doubts the existence of 

 an external world, or cosmos, built up, in Lord 

 Kelvin's phrase, " of coarse-grained matter." Atoms 

 are not, as Professor Rucker skilfully argued in his 

 Presidential Address on the " Fundamental Concepts 

 of Physics " to the British Association at Glasgow in 

 1901, <l merely helps to puzzled mathematicians, but 

 physical realities," probably made up of simpler parts, 

 modifications of one prima materia. And in respect 

 of force, the several modes of motion are explicable 

 only on the assumption that particles of matter are 

 being moved. Hence the atomic theory, despite 

 recent attacks, holds the field. 2 Concerning these 

 things, the common consciousness of mankind brings 

 the same report, but the fact no less remains that we 

 can only assume the existence of beings with minds 

 like our own. For they are a part of the phenomena 

 whose ultimate nature, as was said above, we cannot 



1 Coll. Essays, i. p. 215. 



2 For Professor Rucker's Address, see Times, September 12, 

 1901. 



