9 6 



LECTURES AND ESS A YS 



are the same in kind, but which are 

 differently compounded. 



Consider the question of personal 

 identity in relation to that of molecular 

 form. Thirty-four years ago Mayer, of 

 Heilbronn, with that power of genius 

 which breathes large meanings into 

 scanty facts, pointed out that the blood 

 was "the oil of the lamp of life," the 

 combustion of which sustains muscular 

 action. The muscles are the machinery 

 by which the dynamic power of the 

 blood is brought into play. Thus the 

 blood is consumed. But the whole body, 

 though more slowly than the blood, 

 wastes also, so that after a certain number 

 of years it is entirely renewed. How is 

 the sense of personal identity maintained 

 across this flight of molecules ? To man, 

 as we know him, matter is necessary to 

 consciousness ; but the matter of any 

 period may be all changed, while con- 

 sciousness exhibits no solution of con- 

 tinuity. Like changing sentinels, the 

 oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon that depart 

 seem to whisper their secret to their 

 comrades that arrive, and thus, while the 

 Non-ego shifts, the Ego remains the 

 same. Constancy of form in the 

 grouping of the molecules, and not con- 

 stancy of the molecules themselves, is 

 the correlative of this constancy of per- 

 ception. Life is a wave which in no 

 two consecutive moments of its existence 

 is composed of the same particles. 



Supposing, then, the molecules of the 

 human body, instead of replacing others, j 

 and thus renewing a pre-existing form, ! 

 to be gathered first hand from nature | 

 and put together in the same relative j 

 positions as those which they occupy in j 

 the body. Supposing them to have the I 

 self-same forces and distribution of forces, j 

 the self-same motions and distribution j 

 of motions would this organised con- j 

 course of molecules stand before us as a j 

 sentient thinking being? There seems i 

 no valid reason to believe that it would I 

 not. Or, supposing a planet carved 

 from the sun, set spinning round an 

 axis, and revolving round the sun at a 

 distance from him equal to that of our 



earth, would one of the consequences 

 of its refrigeration be the development 

 of organic forms ? I lean to the affirma- 

 tive. Structural forces are certainly in 

 the mass, whether or not those forces 

 reach to the extent of forming a plant 

 or an animal. In an amorphous drop 

 of water lie latent all the marvels of 

 crystalline force ; and who will set limits 

 to the possible play of molecules in a 

 cooling planet ? If these statements 

 startle, it is because matter has been 

 denned and maligned by philosophers 

 and theologians who were equally 

 unaware that it is, at bottom, essentially 

 mystical and transcendental. 



Questions such as these derive their 

 present interest in great part from their 

 audacity, which is sure, in due time, to 

 disappear. And the sooner the public 

 dread is abolished with reference to such 

 questions the better for the cause of truth. 

 As regards knowledge, physical science 

 is polar. In one sense it knows, or 

 is destined to know, everything. In 

 another sense it knows nothing. Science 

 understands much of this intermediate 

 phase of things that we call nature, of 

 which it is the product ; but science 

 knows nothing of the origin or destiny 

 of nature. Who or what made the 

 sun and gave his rays their alleged 

 power? Who or what made and bestowed 

 upon the ultimate particles of matter 

 their wondrous power of varied inter- 

 action ? Science does not know : the 

 mystery, though pushed back, remains 

 unaltered. To many of us who feel 

 that there are more things in heaven 

 and earth than are dreamt of in the 

 present philosophy of science, but who 

 have been also taught, by baffled efforts, 

 how vain is the attempt to grapple with 

 the Inscrutable, the ultimate frame of 

 mind is that of Goethe : 



" Who dares to name His name, 

 Or belief in Him proclaim, 

 Veiled in mystery as He is, the AU-enfolder ? 

 Gleams across the mind His light, 

 Feels the lifted soul His might, 

 Dare it then deny His reign, the All-up- 

 holder ?" 



