290 



EXPLANATIONS. 



fore, the speed of thought may be reduced to numbers, and 



a man may think at the rate of 192,000 miles a second ! 

 We well know that the author may shelter himself under 

 the juggle of his own words, and tell us that he speaks 

 only of the transmission of our will through the organs 

 of the body. Let him, then, write in more becoming lan- 

 guage. " Now a man is surely entitled to be judged by his 

 own words, or all judgment might as well cease. After 

 showing that a galvanic battery produces at least some of 

 the effects of the brain, and endeavoring to reconcile ordi- 

 nary thinkers to the idea of their partial identity by insist- 

 ing on the almost metaphysical character of the imponder- 

 able agents, I said, in a foot-note, "If mental action is 

 electric, the proverbial quickness of thought, that is, the 

 quickness of the transmission of sensation and will — may 

 be presumed to have been brought to an exact measure- 

 ment," &c. I leave the reader to judge if language more 

 direct and less delusive than this could have been em- 

 ployed. With regard to the idea conveyed, the critic has 

 perhaps forgot, or never known, that the merit of suggest- 

 ing the identity of the electricity-driven clockwork of De- 

 luc with that operation of the brain which produces the 

 pulsations of the heart, is claimed by his " model of phil- 

 osophic caution," Sir John Herschel.* The expression 

 used by that philosopher on the occasion^ " If the brain be 

 an electric pile," &c, ought doubtless to condemn him 

 in the eyes of our critic as a man enamored of resemblan- 

 ces, and a user of unbecoming phraseology — if our critic 

 be a man of impartiality. But he must (if critics be capa- 

 ble of such weakness) revise his opinion on the subject 

 of resemblances. It might surprise even his self-confi- 

 dent mind to find in what decisive terms their utility as 

 one of the means of advancing in scientific observation is 

 insisted on by this very " model of philosophic caution." 

 He will find the passage at page 94 of the celebrated Dis- 

 course. 



After discussing the whole arguments on both sides in 

 so ample a manner, it may be hardly necessary to advert to 

 ihe objection arising from the mere fact that nearly all the 

 scientific men are opposed to the theory of the Vestiges. 

 As this objection, however, is one likely to be of some avail 

 with many minds, it ought not to be entirely passed over 

 If I did not ^.hink there were reasons independent of judg* 

 * Discourse on Natural Philosophy, p. 343 



