IN THE REALM OF MIND. 307 



ranges the whole resulting phenomena of Mind. 

 Mind, as developed in us, has its very existence 

 and working dependent on imperative physical 

 conditions, which conditions are met only by 

 elaborate contrivance. 



We have no knowledge what the Forces are 

 which demand this obedience, and which call for 

 this contrivance. We have even an insuperable 

 difficulty in conceiving what they can be. It almost 

 seems as if there were a barrier in the very na- 

 ture of our minds against the possibility of con- 

 ceiving how any combination of material forces can 

 either result in Mind, or can be necessary to the 

 working of its powers, or can be concerned even in 

 giving it an abode* " We cannot conceive," says 

 Dr Andrew Combe, " even in the remotest manner, 

 in what way the Brain — a compound of water, 

 albumen, fat, and phosphate salts — operates in the 

 generating of Thought." And yet there is one 

 experience which brings the fact of this close con- 



* " Aperta simplexque mens, nulla ne adjuncta. qure sentire possit, 

 fugere intelligentias nostras vim et notionem videtur." — Cicero, De- 

 Nat. Dcor., lib. x. c. II. 



This is true only in one sense. It is very far from being true, 

 that the connexion between Mind and Matter is a necessity of 

 thought. 



