142 THE SCOPE OF MIND. 



that wliicli assures us of the existence of our own bodies 

 and of the properties of external things (viz., inferences 

 from conscious states), should guide us in the study, and 

 as to the conclusions deducihle from our own mental 

 phenomena and those of other living beings. An attentive 

 consideration, however, of such evidence altogether fails 

 to assure us of the existence of * the Mind' as a self- 

 existent entity. It is, indeed, quite the reverse. Very 

 many of those who are most entitled to form a judgment 

 upon this subject, regard it as a * legitimate inference' 

 from existing knowledge that Conscious States, and, indeed, 



* mental phenomena ' generally, are dependent upon the 

 properties and molecular activities of nerve-tissues, just as 



* magnetic phenomena ' are dependent upon the properties 

 and molecular actions of certain kinds or states of iron. 

 Regarded as ultimate facts, we are just as impotent to 

 'explain' the relation or nexus of causation existing 

 between Magnetic Phenomena and the one set of molecu- 

 lar activities, as we are to explain the causation, direct or 

 indirect, of Conscious States by other molecular activi- 

 ties. The mere fact that we are each of us conscious of 

 the existence of mental or subjective states, inscrutable 

 and ultimate as these must always be, certainly cannot 

 be supposed to give any knowledge of ' Mind ' as a self- 

 existent entity. 



Some of those who seek to expound mental phenomena 

 from a scientific stand-point, have not always been suffi- 

 ciently careful to suit their language to their views. 

 This should, however, be done somewhere ; and, if 

 not elsewhere, certainly in a preliminary disquisition, 

 in order that there may be no room for doubt as to an 

 author's meaning when he uses the term ' Mind.* With 

 this end in view some further remarks and explanations 

 will now be given. 



