26 



excitation ; the result is lieat, light, electricity. These 

 are imponderable forces, of which we know nothing 

 beyond their evidence of potential energy. A sndden 

 emotion, a desire, a volition will produce evidence of these 

 convertible forces in the animal system. As in the knowl- 

 edge of material j^henomena, or in tlie study of electrical 

 force, it is not unscientific to assert that we have in self- 

 imposed conceptions the evidence of " an invisible, 

 supersensuous " something — a dynamical agent — a ma- 

 terial force, it may be, which, at will, can, independent of 

 sensation or automatic life, cause the excitation of ner- 

 vous or muscular molecules, as efficiently and truly as 

 is done by ah extra agency. The knowledge of force is 

 as strong in the one example as in the other, and both 

 are equally knowable by phenomena, and these only. 

 Electricity excites molecular action, and through its 

 action on matter we are cognizant of its existence. The 

 so-called vital force is denied to these bodies, even in 

 the lowest form, yet the same laws of chemical ind 

 electrical affinity are brought to play to build up a 

 crystal, a grain of wheat, a muscle or a nerve fiber; 

 but l>ehind these, and producing each according to its 

 kind, is a power that baffles the wisest objectivist, in 

 spite of his acutest analytical investigation. This force 

 is thus assumed by its phenomena. We may not see 

 the worker, but on all sides is indubitable evidence of 

 his craft. A mad man would not say that the means 

 adapted to ends seen in universal nature were a jumble 

 of fortuitous sequents raid cojiseqiients. 



Tyndall says ("Use and Limit of the Imagination in 

 Science ") : 



The philosophy of the future will assuredly take more account 

 than that of the past of the relation of thought antl feeling to phys- 

 ical i)rocesses ; ami it may be that the qualities of the mind will 

 be studied through the organism, as we now study the character 



