126 The Brain Theory of Mind and Matter. [March, 
virtually solidaire Thus it is seen that man is distinct 
from his environment only as a cell may be said to be distinct 
from the matrix, or intercellular matter, which forms its 
home, and supplies it with nutriment. Take, for example, 
a cartilage cell. It lies in the midst of a territory of its own, 
homogeneous with itself in origin, essential structure, and 
chemical composition. Through this domain run a series of 
branching canals, by which nutritive fluids may pass to the 
centre. These fluids, again, are composed of the same 
elements as the physiological unit whose vitality they help 
to support, and are derived from the blood, which bathes 
and permeates every tissue just as the “external” environ- 
ment bathes and permeates the body as a whole. Between 
man and the cell a very instructive parallel may be drawn. 
In one sense a unit, in another a complex, organism ; in one 
sense separate from surrounding matter, in another most 
intimately fused and blended with it ; in one sense a per- 
manent individual, in another losing identity, by change of 
form and material, from day to day, from hour to hour, from 
moment to moment, — all this must be said of man, and all 
this of the animal or vegetable cell. Life, in every case, is 
correlated with those natural forces from which it springs, 
and to which it returns ; or, more correCtly speaking, life is 
due to the co-operation of all the Protean forms of material 
energy, which, as in azoic Nature, work automatically, and 
require no “ spirit ” to accelerate or control their activity. 
The phenomena of voluntary motion and individual character 
no more testify to the presence of an immaterial Archaeus 
than does the spontaneous and distinctive aCtion of a che- 
mical reagent. Add solution of caustic soda or potash to 
mercuric chloride, and a bright yellow precipitate is thrown 
down, while a bright blue mass results from a like experi- 
ment with soda and cupric sulphate. Here, as in human 
thought and deed, the activity proceeds, not from external 
compulsion, but from internal constitution. Objective con- 
ditions, as temperature, atmospheric pressure, &c., may be 
the same in both experiments, but, to speak in terms of 
human personality, the subjective character of the com- 
pounds tested is dissimilar, and their behaviour corresponds 
with this inherent heterogeneity. No doubt the laws which 
determine the conduct of a sentient being are far more com- 
plicated than those which govern chemical union and decom- 
position. But this is just what might have been expected 
from a priori considerations. The animal organism receives, 
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