1072 The Relations of Mind and Matter, (November, 
The usually entertained idea that our mental picture of nature 
is only analogically correct, which has by some writers been car- 
ried to such an extreme as to deny that the external world exists 
at all, but that the mind and its images constitute the universe, 
calls for some attention here. The extreme view may be at once 
dismissed as not consistent with what we know of the laws of 
energy, which forbids evolutionary changes in a concrete or- 
ganism except under the influence of energies received from 
without. And a strong argument may be brought in favor ot 
the view that our conceptions of the external are not illusory, but 
that the image received by the mind is a close reproduction of 
the conditions actually existing in external nature. 
Bodies’ are composed of matter, but it is matter molded by 
force and energy, and all form and quality are due to the inter- 
relations of this energy. Color is due to a special action which 
is exerted upon the waves of light ; sound to an action upon the 
molecules of the air. Colors and sounds, therefore, while not 
belonging to the body which seems to emit them, indicate special 
conditions or qualities of that body. By the study of these special 
emissions of energy we arrive at deeper conceptions of the true 
character of the body. Our first conception of any object is 
very crude and inexact. Exactitude can only be gained by a 
close scientific study of all these special characteristics and influ- 
ences of the object. Our senses do not advise us of the real 
character of matter, but only of its combinations and their proper- 
ties. Nor are we aware of absolute, but only of relative condi- 
tions. Our body, with its conditions, is the standard by which 
the universe is ordinarily measured. If our body was colder 
what we now call cold would become warmth, If it was firmer 
hardness would become softness. If it was larger largeness 
would become smallness, But science is rapidly ceasing to make 
the body the test of nature, and has made some steps from the 
relative towards the absolute. It declares that a certain tempera- 
ture arises from a certain vigor of vibration, a certain color from 
a fixed rapidity of vibration, that degrees of hardness arise from 
_ fixed degrees of resistance in bodies, &c. It is true that these 
= results are expressed in terms of space and time, and space and 
=~ time extension must remain to us relative conceptions. Yet 
nothing else need be relative. If the apparent dimensions of 
s are truly related to our conception of space and the dura- 
