Scientific Lectures. 267 



friend, Prof. Barker, a few evenings since ? I should hold that the 

 word " force " is better applicable to physical events exclusively, and 

 that the word "power" might be advantageously reserved for intel- 

 lectual events, so that, to speak of a thought-force, expecting to make 

 it correlate with any pliysical force whatsoever in the brain, such as 

 heat or electricity, is in entire contradiction to what has been urged 

 here this evening. Among the forces that were presented to you 

 then there was no place for a life-force or a thougl it-force. What was 

 gtruly proved, as it seemed to me, was that there is a certain circle of 

 physical-forces, wliicli ai'e complete in themselves, and replace each 

 other constantly in definite quantity; and among these forces there 

 is no force found which can be laid hold of as a physical-force, and 

 which can be called a life-force. There is really no correlation of a 

 life-force with the other forces. So in reference to a thought-force,, 

 those arguments tend to the conclusion that there is a circle of physi- 

 cal forces in the brain, among which we find no recognition of a dis- 

 tinct force, which can be called a thought-force. And., for one, I 

 should never look in any place in space to find a thougld-force. Sup- 

 posing that we stood at one end of an ocean telegraph, and that the 

 events there happening are represented to us by the physical events 

 which occur in the body in connection with thought, and what hap- 

 pens at the other end represents certain intellectual events which 

 keep constant time with the physical events happening at our end of 

 the telegraph. We inquire into these events and we find a perfect 

 circle of them, and that every one, when it disappears, is replaced by 

 another. In the case of the telegraph, that would not be so, but 

 when you consider the brain, there is nothing lost, for there is a com- 

 plete circle of physical forces, without taking into consideration any 

 thought-force or life-force whatsoever. That is to say, these physical 

 events can revolve round and round, without any absolute loss on * 

 the part of any one of them. But that only goes to show how per- 

 fectly tlie thought-force is distinct from, and alien to, these physical 

 events. We have at our end of the cable the events which are rep- 

 resented by the phenomena of the body, and at the other end a very 

 distinct class of events, known as the phenomena of the mind. These 

 plienoniena stand in some mysterious connection with the phenomena 

 of matter, but the phenomena of matter are, nevertheless, entirely 

 complete in themselves. The two are distinct series of events, that 

 run parallel, one with the other, but we do not and cannot discover 

 the connection between them. The initiation of action begins some- 



