238 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



of these were the intellectual faculties much 

 disturbed. 



Many other similar instances might be cited. 

 It is therefore certain that a considerable part of 

 the brain is not essential either to thought or to 

 organic life, and it is quite legitimate to infer that 

 these parts are rudimentary and in process of 

 evolution, and that the day will come (as it has 

 come in the case of other rudimentary structures) 

 when they will play an important part in the 

 conscious life of the individual. Perhaps, then, 

 ether-waves, of which we have now no cognisance, 

 may be more to us than even waves of light and 

 sound. Perhaps we shall discover space peopled 

 with intangible presences. Perhaps we shall be able 

 to communicate thought direct from brain to brain. 

 Seeing what the brain already can do, seeing how 

 few cells may give origin to most wonderful 

 faculties, we have a right to be sanguine about 

 the possibilities of the future. To the brain all 

 things are possible, for it is the instrument of 

 God, played upon by an infinite variety of forces, 

 and giving rise, according to its constitution, to 

 very different tunes. The same forces which, 

 acting upon a sane brain, produce a rose in the 

 consciousness, may, acting upon an insane brain, 

 produce a demon ; and what they may produce in 

 the brain of a bettle, or a cat, or dog, who can say ? 



