410 MIND AND MATTER. 



We shall now proceed to describe the rise and pro- 

 gress of the mental principle. The origin of mind 

 is an inscrutable mystery, but so is the origin of mat- 

 ter. If we go back to the beginning we find a world 

 of gas, the atoms of which were kept asunder by ex- 

 cessive heat. Where did those atoms come from ? 

 How were they made ? What were they made for ? 

 In reply to these questions theology is garrulous, but 

 science is dumb. 



Mind is a property of matter. Matter is inhabited 

 by mind. There can be no mind without matter ; 

 there can be no matter without mind. When the 

 matter is simple in its composition, its mental tenden- 

 cies are also simple ; the atoms merely tend to ap- 

 proach one another and to cohere ; and as matter 

 under the influence of varied forces (evolved by the 

 cooling of the world) becomes more varied in its com- 

 position, its mental tendencies become more and more 

 numerous, more and more complex, more and more 

 elevated, till at last they are developed into the desires 

 and propensities of the animal, into the aspirations and 

 emotions of the man. But the various tendencies 

 which inhabit the human mind, and which devote it 

 to ambition, to religion, or to love, are not in reality 

 more wonderful than the tendency which impels two 

 ships to approach each other in a calm. For what 

 can be more wonderful than that which can never be 

 explained ? The difference between the mind of the 

 ship and the mind of man is the difference between 

 the acorn and the oak. 



The simplest atoms are attracted to one another 

 merely according to distance and weight. That is the 

 law of gravitation. But the compound atoms, which 

 are called elements, display a power of selection. A 



