24 



ductor is smaller, there it heats more rapidly. In other 

 words it condenses, and becomes more intense where 

 the way is narrowed, as a stream becomes more impet- 

 uous where it is pent up by banks or rocks. Another 

 illustration will show this: take a nodulated glass 

 tube, in which the air is rarified, pass through it an 

 electi'ic current, which may l)e seen as a luminous spray. 

 Where the tube is narrowed, the lio-ht condenses and 

 becomes more V)right ; in other words becomes swifter 

 in its flow the more it is confined. Here is a well 

 known law of fluids in operation, and not mere force. 

 Tlie same experiments may be made with sound, light 

 or heat, and it will be found that they do not condense 

 and flow onward with increased intensity, but that 

 they are refracted or reflected into or from the medium. 

 Herein, even in this pi'imary form, lies a radical diflfer- 

 ence in tne phenomena of these forces, and leads me se- 

 riously to question their entire correlation. I have not 

 the least doul)t that in the wonderful phenomena of 

 of Edison's phonograpli, in \vhich a vibrating tym- 

 panum, a steel point, and a revolving cylinder covered 

 with tin foil, can act as do the two complicated organs, 

 the ear and the vocal parts, it will be found that the 

 minute impressions depend on the molecular condi- 

 tion of the surface. Were it not so the ten thousandth 

 part of a variety in the receiving of speech and giving 

 it out, must change its character entirely. Thus far I 

 have briefly indicated salient points in the phenomena 

 of magnetism^ and the analogous, but more varied force, 

 which I have designated vitalism. The latter always 

 includes the former, as a substantial energy. We can 

 see that in pstt/chisfii the two former are necessary to 

 the latter, and that the trinity is indispensable to men- 

 tal existence — shall I say — being mental life itself. 



Thus far I have stated a few general principles. It 

 is not too much for the egoist to ask that an analogy 



