CHARLES B. WARRING, PH.D. 135 



Secondly, man has the most wonderful instrument 

 conceivable in his pair of hands. Having hands and 

 will, how does the will set the hands in motion ? Will 

 is an attribute of mind, and between mind and matter 

 there seems to be a great gulf, over which no bridge ex- 

 tends. We can conceive of no connection. And yet a 

 connection does exist, as we have abundant proof every 

 time we take pleasure through our senses, or move a 

 muscle. We must then accept it as a fact that mind and 

 matter act on each other, at least in our own internal 

 mechanism. Nor, on reflection, shall we find any greater 

 difficulty in this, than in the fact that matter acts on 

 matter. How is it that the moon raises the tides ? How 

 is it that something, we call it gravitation, reaches across 

 innumerable billions of miles and starts every mass of 

 matter in the universe towards the tiny stone I pick up 

 from the brook? How is it that my hand can push a 

 body before it, and never under any circumstances come 

 in actual contact with it? What is it that is so strongly 

 repellent that no finite power can press through it to the 

 substance within? We accept these things although in- 

 conceivable because we cannot do otherwise in face of 

 the evidence, and for equally good reasons we must be- 

 lieve that mind has some connection with matter; that 

 somewhere and somehow, there is a bridge across the 

 separating gulf. 



I open and close my hand ; what has occurred? The 

 anatomist tells me that in my forearm are certain mus- 

 cles terminating in cords which are attached to my fin- 

 gers. The muscles contract, and so pull the cords and 

 the fingers move. This contraction is dependent on cer- 

 tain tine filainents or nerves running from the muscle to 

 the brain. If the connection is inteirupted at any point 

 between the two, the muscle no longer contracts, and the 

 fingers do not move. It is like machinery driven by 

 electricity. It may be turned off or on by making or 



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