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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. Waves 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, where 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. No, 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 maybe reconverted into motion. A certain motion is, 
