56 BEING AND FACULTIES OF MAN. 



CHAPTER IV. 



The limited range of our positive or absolute knowledge of external 

 matter How much our knowledge is merely comparative How 

 necessary, therefore, that we should test everything where we can 

 Difference in the mode in which truth and falsehood demand our 

 credence Spiritualism and its stances Its profanation of the 

 dead Table-turning Faraday's exposure of it Simple applica- 

 tion of his indicator for the detection of unconscious lateral 

 pressure and of confederacy Mesmerism Its more preposterous 

 pretensions abated Our tendency to neglect the true knowledge of 

 what is familiar Our ignorance of why or how our hands 

 instantly obey our will Consciousness can control and direct the 

 operations of matter Is it the force by which motion is accom- 

 plished'? Probability that it is not The vital forces and the 

 forces of motion distinguished The blood the life, a mystery- 

 Electricity as a motive force in animals Probability of its being 

 the only motive force Structure of the muscles and electric action 

 on them Ampere's theory of electric currents Telegraphic and 

 electro-mechanical nature of animal motion. 



FROM what has been explained in the preceding chapters, 

 it will now be apparent that there are but two absolute 

 qualities of matter, that is, of bodies external to us, 

 which are positive and capable of instantaneous verifica- 

 tion by the senses, viz., the reality of the matter itself, when 

 within the reach of touch, and the form of matter pre- 

 sented to the eye or the touch. How small a number of 

 bodies this would make realizable to the blind man, how 

 limited an amount of the qualities of those bodies it would 

 present, even to the man who sees, must be very evident. 

 How narrow therefore would be our knowledge if we 



