1883.] The Brain Theory of Mind and Matter . 127 
assimilates, and finally breaks up and parts with a thousand 
complex and unstable chemical compounds; but these are 
only its raw materials, which are mingled in varying propor- 
tions in every microscopic fragment of the body. Minute 
cells are built up whose very nuclei contain an intricate 
network of almost inconceivably delicate fibrils. These 
cells are again combined into tissues adapted to the per- 
formance of their several functions, and these tissues are in 
their turn moulded and interwoven to form the different 
organs of this wonderful Microcosm. Finally, all the organs 
are subordinated to the rule of two sovereigns, aCting with 
complete concert — the cerebro-spinal and the sympathetic 
nervous system. When we learn that a single nerve trunk 
is composed of hundreds of fibres, varying from 1-14, oooth 
to i-2000th of an inch in diameter, that each of these fibres 
probably transmits its own special message from periphery 
to centre, or from centre to periphery, and that every message 
exerts some influence upon the thoughts and doings of man, 
we need not marvel that his ways are often incalculable, and 
his cogitations past finding out. To regard the intellect as 
an entity, separable from the myriad factors which unite to 
produce and to direCt it, is not less absurd than to consider 
as aCtual beings those personified abstractions which we 
meet with in poetic diction, — to believe, e.g . 9 that Gray 
beheld in a literal “vale of years” the “painful family of 
Death, more hideous than their queen,” or that Milton’s 
Satan ever conversed with Sin and Death at the gate of 
Hell. The following note by Dr. Lewins well elucidates my 
meaning: — “In medicine symptoms are the synonyms for 
phenomena. They can always be traced to their source in 
an organ, and are intensified, diminished, modified, or re- 
moved by aCting on the organ. In no case can they be 
isolated and dealt with per se .”* Now, the aggregate of 
cerebral functions or phenomena, which we call Mind, no 
more constitutes a separate entity than does the aggregate 
of abnormal symptoms, which we call Insanity. 
FaCts and inductions like these are evidently fitted to 
revolutionise, not only our manner of regarding the physical 
Universe, but also our habits of thought and action with 
respeCt to all the higher problems of mind and of practical 
life. New and great ideas, if duly assimilated, must modify 
our views of all which was previously known or imagined, 
and many a cherished illusion must fall when the “ Auto- 
centric ” or “ Hylo-Ideal” theory is finally establised. The 
What is Religion ? p. 40, 
