180 PSTCIIOLOOy. 



internal contradictions wliicli we found to beset the other 

 two theories. One has no unintelligible self-combining of 

 psychic units to account for on the one hand ; and on the 

 other hand, one need not treat as the physical counterpart 

 of the stream of consciousness under observation, a ' total 

 brain-activity ' which is non-existent as a genuinely physi- 

 cal fact. But, to offset these advantages, one has physio- 

 logical difficulties and improbabilities. There is no cell 

 or group of cells in the brain of such anatomical or func- 

 tional pre-eminence as to appear to be the keystone or centre 

 of gravity of the whole system. And even if there were 

 such a cell, the theory of multiple monadism would, in 

 strictness of thought, have no right to stop at it and treat 

 it as a unit. The cell is no more a unit, materially con- 

 sidered, than the total brain is a unit. It is a compound of 

 molecules, just as the brain is a compound of cells and fibres. 

 And the molecules, according to the prevalent j)hysical theo- 

 ries, are in turn compounds of atoms. The theory in ques- 

 tion, therefore, if radically carried out, must set up for its 

 elementary and irreducible psycho-physic couple, not the 

 cell and its consciousness, but the primordial and eternal 

 atom and its consciousness. We are back at Leibnitzian 

 monadism, and therewith leave physiology behind us and 

 dive into regions inaccessible to experience and verification \ 

 and our doctrine, although not self-contradictory, becomes 

 so remote and unreal as to be almost as bad as if it were. 

 Speculative minds alone will take an interest in it ; and 

 metaphysics, not psychology, will be responsible for its 

 career. That the career may be a successful one must be 

 admitted as a possibility — a theory which Leibnitz, Her- 

 bart, and Lotze have taken under their protection must 

 have some sort of a destiny. 



THE SOUL-THEORY. 



But is this my last word ? By no means. Many 

 readers have certainly been saying to themselves for the 

 last few pages : " Why on earth doesn't the poor man say 

 the Soul and have done with it ? " Other readers, of anti- 

 spiritualistic training and prepossessions, advanced think- 

 ers, or popular evolutionists, will perhaps be a little sur- 



