264 TUAKSACTIOXS OF THE A ME RICA X IxSTITUTE. 



able, according to the method of contemplation, to find any one of a 

 thousand numbers in this simple, continuous thing, the hand. 

 "Whatever we contemplate is one or many, as the mind finds it con- 

 venient to consider it. Number is but the pliant form of its own 

 conceptions. 



Having contemplated things as one or many, we regard them as 

 like or unlike ; and the notion of likeness, as a general and as a 

 specific idea, is furnished by the mind. Two apples are like or unlike, 

 according to the point regai'ded, like in color, unlike in form ; like 

 in form, unlike in flavor; like in qualities, unlike in origin. Thus 

 the mind plays upon them, divides and redivides them, under the 

 general idea of resemblance, according to the object it is pursuing. 

 When, however, we come to the ideas of space and consciousness, 

 the case is altered. These are not merel}' difierent methods of regard- 

 ing the same things, they each give the peculiar and distinguishing 

 feature of the objects to which they pertain. All physical events are 

 characterized by the notion of space; all intellectual events by that 

 of consciousness. We conceive of every physical event as happening 

 somewhere. If it be a nervous, physical event, it happened in some 

 brain. Eyes sharp enough and rightly placed would have disclosed 

 it as a form of motion, as a change of some physical substance some- 

 where. When we come to mental facts the case is quite different. 

 These must take place in some consciousness, in some one's experience. 

 If no event has taken place in any consciousness, then there has been 

 no intellectual fact. Mental phenomena have moreover no direct 

 connection with space. The notion is not applicable to them. Thought 

 has ueitlier length nor breath nor locality. The action of the brain 

 which accompanies thought, is not thought ; that has a physical extent 

 and position ; can be seen and made by mind an object of outside 

 inspection. Thus by adroit dissection and reflection, the mind 

 might see itself think, if the action of the nervous system is thought. 



By these two ideas, the phenomena of mind and the phenomena of 

 matter, are cut entirely apart from each other. One is characterized 

 b}' consciousness and the otlier by the notion of space. They are 

 also cut apart still further, because all physical events come under the 

 law of causation, all intellectual events come under the idea of 

 spontaneity. The diflerence between cause and effect and spontaneity 

 is very marked. In the case of cause and effect the force (and the 

 word force is strictly applicable here) is always behind the eflEect. 

 There is a certain amount of chemical action which belong: to a cer- 



