338 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



in time are nothing more than modes of motion 

 and therefore nothing more than perceptions. For 

 of motion we know nothing except that it repre- 

 sents a continuous change of certain perceptions 

 in their relations with those of space and time. 



Hence one form of thought — our own minds — 

 runs parallel to and is concomitant with another 

 form of thought, perhaps more permanent — though 

 that we cannot say — which we call matter, elec- 

 tricity or aether. And it all resolves itself into 

 mind perceiving mind. 



Esse est percipi. We know nothing of the world, 

 any more than of ourselves, except as perceptions 

 in our own minds. 



We know there are other minds, but only as 

 perceptions in our own. We know that by com- 

 plex, extremely complex, aggregations of these 

 perceptions or ideas we call atoms of matter self- 

 conscious units like ourselves arise. To us they 

 seem to share like properties, but they are mere 

 spirits like ourselves. 



That such self-conscious units can so result 

 from the combination of the perceptions we call 

 atoms, leads us to suppose that these too in a 

 sense possess a consciousness in some dim remote 

 degree. For that reason we regard matter, or the 

 electrons of which matter is composed, as mind- 

 stuff. The atoms are nothing more than ideas : and 

 the higher forms of mind which we generally call by 

 that name are merely aggregations of ideas, and 

 in the limit, of ideas such as these. 



