524 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



us, but we have also a large array of external facts which 

 have been appropriately defined by the term " the ob- 

 jective mind." There are, in fact, two properties with 

 which we are familiar through common-sense and ordin- 

 ary reflection as belonging specially to the phenomena 

 of our inner self-conscious life, to the so-called " epi- 

 phenomena" of the higher organic or nervous systems, 

 and these properties seem to lie quite beyond the sphere 

 and the possibilities of the ordinary methods of exact 

 37. research. The first of these properties is the peculiar 



Phenomenon . 



ofcentraiisa- unity exhibited by the higher forms of organic existence, 

 and still more evident in the phenomena of mental or 

 inner life. Instead of unity, it might perhaps be better 

 to call it centralisation. Now, the more we apply mathe- 

 matical methods, the more we become aware of the im- 

 possibility of ever arriving at a comprehensive unity by 

 adding units or elements together. The sum of atoms or 

 molecules, however artfully put together, never exhibits 

 to our reasoning that appearance of concentration which 

 the higher organisms or our conscious self seem to exhibit. 

 In this circumstance lies the difficulty of ever arriving at 

 any really satisfactory definition of life which definition 

 eminent physiologists have, as we have seen, felt com- 

 pelled ultimately to relegate to the realm of the idea. 

 In the last chapter I showed how modern research into 

 the phenomena of life has impressed upon our thoughts 

 the ubiquity, the continuity, and the unique character or 

 singularity of life, without being able to fix upon any one 

 satisfactory mechanical definition of life. But as we 

 ascend in the scale of living things we become aware of 

 another property : they are centred i.e., they exhibit a 



