6 
Transactions Texas Academy of Science. — 1906. 
reassured himself that matter is real, as if that needed proof, but 
failed to east even the faintest glow of light on what matter is, 
which is the real question. 
Before reflection, all men think they know matter perfectly. Why, 
they say, matter is the commonest thing in the world ; it is everywhere, 
which is of course true. And, they are likely to add at that stage, 
everything is matter, which is false, as matter is ordinarily conceived. 
But, if you are still unsatisfied and press to be told definitely what 
matter is, the man in the street is likely to resort to the when defini- 
tion, so dear to childhood, as did Dr. Johnson, that colossal way- 
farer. Matter is when you kick a stone, or when you see a tree, or 
eat its fruit, or hear the thunder roll. Now, it goes without saying 
that matter is in fact there ivlien you do each of these things. But 
so is much else besides, including yourself, the soreness of your toe 
if you kick hard enough, the color you see, savor you taste, and sound 
you hear. But matter, of course, is not pain, color, taste or sound, 
any more than it is yourself or any other self. All these experiences 
of ours are there with matter, but matter they simply are not, 
either singly or all together. Color is with its beauty, in the eye, 
or rather the mind, of the beholder, and there too is sound with 
its melody, and all other experiences. They are the effects wrought 
upon us, through the intermediation of our sense organs, by matter. - 
Given an adequate outer cause, an eye in its organism to be affected, 
and a mind to perceive, and color is the result. Given cause, ear and 
mind, and we have sound; or cause, touch organ and mind, and we 
have the feeling of hardness. But matter, without sense organs or 
mind, can not have such experiences. And the substance of matter they 
are not. The truth is that we know so much about the total situa- 
tion when matter is present that we easily delude ourselves into 
thinking that we know the matter too, but, as Dr. Higgins once said, 
in dealing with such experiences we are merely playing with the 
pebbles on the beach; the sea of reality, matter itself, is still beyond 
our ken. What matter is not, its effects on our senses, is plain. But 
what it is, all such talk leaves as dark as before it was uttered. 
And, until recently, science has been as dumb and helpless when 
confronted by this question, as has commonsense. Much is told about 
the behavior of matter: how fast and far, and when it moves, and 
what is the result of its impact, etc. ; all very interesting and highly 
useful information. But how anything behaves, what it does, is one 
thing; what it is, is something entirely different. One is reminded 
of Dr. Johnson’s definition of oats, as a grain eaten by men in Scot- 
land and horses in England, except that he does class it as a grain. 
Another familiar device of science is to divide and conquer : though 
