120 



upon the retina at the back, transmit their motion along the optic 

 nerve to the brain, when they announce themselves as conscious- 

 ness of light by resolution into an idea^^ (p. 21). It seems 

 somewhat difficult to resolve this into an idea. AVaves of light 

 announce themselves as consciousness of light : that is_, the 

 waves are conscious of themselves, and announce themselves, — 

 as what ? Not as conscious waves, but as consciousness, or not 

 as waves at all ; in other words, they do not speak the truth. 

 This savours more of darkness than of light, but let that pass. 

 The next question is, to whom do they announce themselves ? 

 As we are not told, we may presume it is to the other arrivals 

 from the sun or stars, or perchance even to the conscious moon- 

 shine that may have accompanied them. The mode of the 

 announcement is by resolving themselves into an idea ! How 

 this will achieve their object we are dull enough not to see : 

 if there is to be an idea, it must be a noisy one, that all may 

 be made aware of the new arrival. And so, what was a wave 

 before it entered the brain, becomes, the moment it enters 

 that wizard^s home, at once consciousness and an idea ! 



40. What juvenile has not longed for the time of pantomimes, 

 that he may revel in all the glories of the transformation scene; 

 but these are nothing compared with the transformations 

 of perpetual occurrence in the theatre of the brain. Hear Mr. 

 Baring-Gould once more : — " Sound is the undulation of the 

 air (?). The force applied by the finger to a harp-string flings 

 the air into agitation, and the ripples sweep in at the ear, 

 vibrate on the tympanum, and are thrilled to the auditory 

 ganglion, ivherc they transform themselves into a musical idea'* 

 (p. 22) . As sound leaves the harp-string it is only an aerial ripple, 

 but within the brain it, the ripple, is transformed into a musical 

 idea. Xo, I beg its pardon, it is not transformed ; the act is a 

 voluntary one, it transforms itself. I most sincerely wish these 

 ripples could be reasoned with, that I might persuade them to 

 transform themselves into some other ideas, for at the present 

 moment the musical ones are excessively irritative, coming as 

 they do from a German band, and not one of the ripples seems 

 certain in what musical idea it ought to rest. Professor Stokes, 

 of Cambridge, recently spoke of scientific conjecture as being 

 very different from true science, and if Mr. Baring-Gould has 

 not supplied us with the former, we must despair of finding it. It 

 is, however, we are glad to say, counteracted by much genuine 

 and true philosophy, found in other portions of his scholarly 

 volumes. 



41. Mr. Spencer, as we have seen already (§ 1), holds not 

 only that motion, &c., is convertible into thought, but that 

 thought mny be reconverted into motion. A certain motion is. 



