SIMPLE LESSONS FROM COMMON THINGS 407 



too commonplace to deserve a moment of our attention, and which we 

 are, nevertheless, utterly unable to understand. In a crude way we can 

 understand the machinery of sound waves. We can see the action of 

 the vocal organs, by means of which they are produced. We can learn 

 something of the nerve fibers of the ear upon which these sound waves 

 fall. But what else is there at the two ends of this line of action? 

 What is there within these two masses of matter, which enables either 

 one of them to hold wireless communication with the other ? 



Let us assume that we are wholly familiar with the motion of each 

 molecule of air involved in the sound waves; that we are able to make 

 drawings of all the delicate modulations of muscular motion which are 

 involved when the organs of speech produce these sound waves. Our 

 drawings are to show precisely how these motions of the vocal organs 

 are different, when English words are spoken with Irish and with Ger- 

 man accent. Our knowledge is to be similarly complete concerning the 

 receiving apparatus at the hearing end of the line. We trace these 

 motions finally along nerves leading to two brains at opposite ends of 

 the line. We may assume that we know all of these structures and 

 their motions in the most minute detail. What do we then know of the 

 phenomenon that one conscious being, embodied in a mass of matter, 

 may determine or influence the thoughts and actions of another con- 

 scious being, by formulating thoughts in words, and delivering them to 

 him through the air ? How are we to explain the fact that he can plan 

 and deliver a sentence, which will, unknown to the receiver, change the 

 frequency of his heart beats ? 



He may even do this by sending to him through the mails a sheet of 

 paper upon which he has made certain marks in ink. On the enclosing 

 wrapper are certain other marks, images of which, by means of ether 

 waves, are formed on the retinal membranes of clerks in the post office. 

 By such means the muscular motions of these clerks are determined. 

 The letter is delivered to the particular person whom the sender had 

 in mind. 



When the receiver of this paper has also allowed ether waves from 

 these ink marks and the paper which bears them, to fall upon the nerves 

 of his retinal membranes, he knows the mental attitude of the man who 

 sent that paper. He makes some computations. He does some think- 

 ing. And, by the way, what is doing some thinking? He makes a 

 response to the wireless message. The result is a mental agreement 

 between two minds. A check and a deed of transfer of title to property 

 are drawn, and are exchanged, and a family moves from one house to 

 another. 



What would the former cave dweller think of these amazing phe- 

 nomena ? I venture to assert that this transaction is vastly more com- 

 plex than any electrical action. The man who talks of the mysteries of 



