"THE BIOGEN SERIES," No. 4

CAN MATTER THINK?

A PROBLEM IN PSYCHIOS

" F. T. S."

THE BIOGEN SERIES, No. 4.

CAN MATTER THINK?

PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.

The undersigned will publish from time to time a col-
lection of books entitled The Biogen Series, of which
"BIOGEN: A Speculation on the Origin and Nature of
Life," now in its Fifth Edition, was No. 1.

No. 2 was "THE DiEMON OF DAEWIN," now in

its Second Edition.

No. 3 was " A BUDDHIST CATECHISM," which has
also passed to another Edition.

The present volume, "CAN MATTER THINK V is
No. 4 of the series.

The next volume, " KUTHUMI : the True and Com-
plete (Economy of Human Life," will be No. 5 of the

series.

The Biogen Series consists of concise Essays on live
questions of the day or of historical research in Religion,
Science, and Philosophy, prepared by writers of the most emi-
nent ability, and is under the editorial direction of Dr. Coues.

ESTES & LAURIAT.

Can Matter Think?

A PROBLEM IN PSYCHICS.

By " F. T. S."

EDITED,
WSSiti) a preface anU "Notes,
By professor COUES.

BOSTON:
ESTES AND LAURIAT.
1886.

Copyright, 1886,
By Estes and Lauriat.

John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

London, i8 May, 1885.
Professor Elliott Coues, M.D., etc., Washington, U. S. A.

Dear Sir, — The accompanying MS. is submitted without re-
serve to your consideration and to any disposition you may choose
to make of it, without disclosing its authorship. As it contains
views not widely at variance from those to which you have given
expression in " Biogen," possibly it may interest you to note the
convergence of paths by which similar conclusions have been
reached.

The recent organization of the London Society for Psychical
Research must be regarded as a concession, on the part of science,
to a pressure of spiritual environment that had become irresistible.
Without exception, the enthusiasts who have made incursions upon
the territory of "ghost-land" have hitherto sacrificed their scien-
tific status and been ruthlessly consigned to the limbo of dupes
and cranks.

But now a concerted movement is on foot. A detail from the
scientific corps, sang pur, and volunteers invited, has been ordered
-to the front, armed, equipped, and granted a roving commission.

8

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

The public, the pseudo-scientists, the spiritualists, are boldly chal-
lenged to come on and show up the ghost of anything uncanny or
even unscientific, and then stand off and see it demolished by sci-
entific methods ; they ring the bell of the haunted house, and dare
the spook to show himself. And you, too, have your " American
Society for Psychical Research," staring telepathy in the face
and ready to go over every inch of ground the Britishers have
explored — and cleared of ghosts. Who is afraid now ?

The psychical researchers have slipped their moorings and they
are already adrift upon a boundless ocean. A gentle breeze, a
psychic zephyr, a telepathic aura, is wafting them on to blue water.
The hand-lines with which heretofore bottom has been everywhere
touched, will soon be found too short, and deep-sea soundings
become the order of the day. Will they ever fathom it, this abyssal
bathos, and fetch up Bathybius alive ? In some respects these ex-
plorers remind one of a crew of landsmen for the first time afloat.
New experiences are to be encountered ; unexpected emergencies
are to be met and unforeseen dangers are to be avoided ; novel
methods are to be invented, unprecedented experiments are to be
tried ; and doubtless some most unconventional pilots are to be
employed. A queer cruise this of theirs ! Has the " Flying
Dutchman" hove in sight at last?

In any event, this new departure marks an epoch that is destined
to become memorable. It cannot be without result, if even inquiry
be stimulated to such extent that no man need fear to tell what he
knows, or to give the public the benefit of any conclusions at which
he may have arrived.

I know that you watch the course of our respective Psychic Re-
search Societies with the same keen interest and vigilance that we

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

9

do here. The question is, Are they putting to sea indeed ? Thus
far they have picked oakum to spin into theories, and walked
the deck on tiptoe for fear of wetting their feet. I join your wish
that we may not have to withdraw from a position that is becoming
stultifying to every true spiritualist and every psychic scientist of
experience.

HERE are several ways in which the human constitution

may be regarded.
Every child discovers his body for himself, and believes he
has a soul because his mother tells him so. This notion of the
twofold, dual, or binary composition of the human fabric is one
in which most persons live and die ; they know they have bodies,
and suppose they have souls. " Soul and body " is a very
useful term.

When persons think more about it, and enlarge upon the sub-
ject, proceeding from particulars to generals, they get a notion
of mind and matter ; of that which thinks, and that which is
thought about ; of the subjective and the objective ; of the ego
and the not-ego ; and they polish off these two sides of Nature's
one shield according to their respective ability and inclination.

Some persons after a while rub so hard on their own side of

Y':

'rs always,

F. T. S:

lO

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

the shield that they see their own reflection in it, as in a mirror.
If they happen to be on the physical side, they forget about the
other, and come to the conclusion they have no souls to speak
of ; if they happen to be on the psychical side, they are apt to
conclude that bodies are not worth mentioning.

So the materialists and the spiritualists rattle and bang the
shield, or play bo-peep with each other around its edges,
according as they are pugnaciously or peacefully disposed.

There is another way of looking at oneself, which is in some
respects an improvement on the foregoing. This way found
probably its best expression in Greek philosophy and at the
hands of Plato. According to this view of the human constitu-
tion a man consists of three things, — he is a trio, or a trinity ;
a spirit on one side, a body on the other, with something
between which partakes of the nature of both, and so unites
them in one. These three parts or principles are, on the one
hand. Nous, the spiritual thinking principle, the reason or
intelligence, — the mind, in short, such as man alone possesses
of all created things ; on the other hand, Soma, the body, like
that of any mineral, vegetable, or animal; between them,
Psyche, the irrational, instinctive, spiritual body or brute soul,
such as any other animal possesses.

Numberless analogies of nature bear out this trinitarian way
of thinking. Every " thing " we know, for example, has three

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

II

dimensions, — length, breadth, and thickness, without which it
could not be " thingy," or material, or objective and real. And
in fact most things, either in physics or in metaphysics, that we
can know about, have not only their two opposites, or extremes,
but also some middle character, like both, but being exactly
neither ; just as a stick consists in neither of its ends, but in its
continuity, though it would not be a stick without both ends.
So with male and female : a child is neither, though it becomes
one or the other ; an aged person is neither, though it has been
one or the other. So with love and hate, or hope and fear :
there is a wide middle range of these affections between such
extremes.

The fact that we are three-dimensional beings may have
much to do with our trinitarian ideas. It is quite certain that
we always invest even our deities with trinity : as witness Nara,
Nari, and Viradj ; Osiris, Isis, and Horus ; Brahma, Vishnu,
and Shiva ; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

But wherever we have a range of quality or character shading
between two extremes it is obviously possible to make a scale,
or gradation, and read off our marks as finely as we please ; just
as one would graduate a thermometer. And it happens that
seven is so almost instinctively applied by people in dividing
things up, that one is tempted to suspect there must be a pro-
found reason for it in the occult nature of things. A good deal

12

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

of time is measured in the septenary style, by seven, as the days
in the week and sundry recognizable periods or stages in human
life. The physicist counts seven colors of the solar spectrum,
though all seven shade into one another, and common people
see but three in the rainbow. Musicians and physicists alike
reckon seven notes between each octave, and subdivide these
again. Poets even give us "songs of seven;" some of the
wisest philosophers have written books about nothing but the
mystical properties of the number seven ; and any old witch or
wizard will talk to you mysteriously of seventh sons or daughters,
and especially of their progeny in the seventh generation.

It is not likely that in the course of the world the human
constitution could have been considered exempt from the " law
of seven," and in fact the oldest and most lasting analysis of
man that the world has seen is a septenary one. It is the
Oriental, Hindu, Brahminical, Buddhistic, Theosophic, and
what-not other way of looking at the human fabric. It will be
so novel to most persons in this country, possesses such intrinsic
interest, claims such profound meaning, and really does explain
a man so intelligibly, that no apology is needed for dwelling
upon it here, especially as it will tlirow much light on the very
reserved author with wliom we are going to deal. Here is the
scheme ; though I alone am responsible for everything in it
except the Hindu names and their English equivalents.

^ >

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p o ;^

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p (T)

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p a-"'

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P p

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t= o
— n-

P^

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P ^ ^
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S >

Perishable ; tend down.
H Objectivity.

Phenomena.

§ Sir:--

P rr'-'T'
1— ■ cr-" g

■O ^■
'-• ^ O

l-H '->■

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o P- P

§ o S

O O^.
■-I cn >-i

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S- 3 D.

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3 i-i c

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£3 ^
p 3 ^

o ^

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3"

cn ^

3-Q
5' o

ox?

3-

P

Imperishable ; tend up.
Subjectivity.
Noumena.

p
3
o

i-i

Knowledge.

Faith.

Psychic Science.

tj- Physiology,
o. ^—

g Phenomenal

or >

Orthodox Religion.

Spiritualism.

Philosophical Spiritualism.

p

cn
o

Systems of Science.

Religious Philosophy.

Systems of Philosophy.

ft
3
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(T>

Prophesy and Seership ; Avatars; Saviors.

V

Theosophy, Science of Sciences, and Philosophy of Religion.

Si
&5

I

r

^ The Hindu names in the above table are not, all of them, those always
employed. Thus, No. 2, yiva, is also called Jivatma, and Prana. No. 3,
Linga, is also called Lingasarira, or Lingha Sharira. No. 4, Kama, is

14

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

No one must fancy for a moment that these seven parts of
man are in streaks or layers, like the leaves of a book, one
" above " another ; or yet that they are one " within " another,
like a nest of pill-boxes. The differences between them are in
degree of materiality from i to 7 ; or, what is the same thing,
in degree of spirituality from 7 to i . If we represent the idea
of diminishing materiality from i to 7, it might be figured in
thought as a cone, the broad base of which is Rupa, body or
matter as the chemist knows it, and the apex of which touches
Atma. Then, by a like figure, to bring into mind the idea of
spirit infusing itself into and informing matter, in less and less
degree " downward," spirituality would be represented by a
cone reversed, its base uppermost and its apex touching Rupa.
Further remarks upon this scheme may not be out of place, as

also called Kamarupa and Mayavirupa. No. i has also another name,
Sthulasarira. But scarcely anybody in America knows Sanskrit; and
almost any word is a mere symbol or sign of something. For those who
desire to look into the system of Oriental psychics it will be very con-
venient to attach definite meanings to certain short and simple words,
which may thus become working tools of thought for them. Of the seven
names given in the table, four, — Atma, Buddhi, Manas, and Rupa, —
are always used ; and to clip the other three, so that the whole seven
may be single words of two syllables each, will be a great practical con-
venience. It is therefore recommended that the seven names be com-
mitted to memory and definitely attached to the seven ideas they
respectively represent.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

15

they will tend to elucidate the meaning of the author of " Can
Matter Think?" 1

1 Swedenborg, before the mere scientist had lapsed in the visionary
seer, gave the clearest explanation of the constitution of matter that I
have seen in Western literature. His theory of "crustals " may be thus
illustrated. Suppose a bag of bullets, making a mass. Suppose each
bullet to be a ball of shot ; that is, a spherical mass of spheres. Suppose
each shot to be in turn a ball of smaller shot. Here we have in crude
form the orthodox scientific notion of matter as consisting of mass, made
up of molecules, and these made up of atoms. But Swedenborg went
much farther ; he did not stop short of mathematical points as his initial
factors of matter, getting at " spirit " by this route.

Matter, as such, is admitted to be absolutely unknown to science
except in mass. No scientist professes to have touched, tasted, smelled,
heard, or seen a molecule even, much less an atom. He simply assumes
both molecules and atoms. The molecule of any elementary substance
is the simplest state in which it has the properties of that substance.
For instance, a molecule of hydrogen, as hydrogen, consists of at least two
atoms ; but what these atoms would be like, separated from each other,
he has no idea. In other words, if you could wreck the hydrogen mole-
cule, hydrogen would cease to be itself.

The difference between ice, water, and steam is simply dependent
upon the distance apart of the molecules of water, according to the
degree of heat affecting their relative positions. "Heat" does this.
Now, shock water with a finer force than heat, namely, with electricity,
and you split the water-molecule into hydrogen and oxygen molecules.
Chemistry stops here. But if a still finer and fiercer force could break
up the hydrogen molecules, what would happen? The gas, hydrogen,
would be knocked out of the phenomenal world ; it would cease to be an
" objective reality ; " it would be biogen, perhaps, or od, or aura, or akasa ;

i6

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

Each of these seven parts of man is itself composite ; that is,
has sundry parts or properties of its own, and each is divided
systematically in the Eastern scheme. Thus, as every one
knows, the body is compounded of various solids, fluids, and
gases. Most of it is water, itself compounded of two gases,
oxygen and hydrogen. Two gases, oxygen and nitrogen, are
taken in at every breath ; watery vapor and carbonic dioxyd gas
are given out at every breath. Most of the solid body is carbon
in some form ; the bones are mostly hme, and there is mag-
but not an atom would be knocked out of existence ; it would simply be
withdrawn from ordinary observation, and so could not be put in a bottle,
or tied up in anything, or weighed, or done anything with on the physical
plane.

Is there any force known which can disrupt molecules of matter ? Yes,
there is; and those who know it and can use it have no more difficulty
in understanding and effecting de-materializations than they have in
producing materializations from the akasa.

But to come to the point of this footnote. Apply the Swedenborgian
illustration to the septenary constitution of man. Suppose every particle
of Rupa — that is, every molecule of the physical body — to be a shot, size
No. I. But this shot is not solid; it is composed of finer particles, Jiva,
.shot No. 2. Each particle of Jiva is similarly composed of particles of
Linga, shot No. 3. And so on, with increasing fineness of particles, to the
infinite sublimation of spirit. This illustration also helps us to grasp the
ordinary Oriental definition of pure Atma as " the seventh principle of
the seventh principle of matter." The extraordinary subtlety of Eastern
conceptions may be imagined if we remember that our own science has
no practical knowledge of matter except in bulk. (See Appendix.)

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

17

nesia, soda, sulphur, iron, phosphorus, and so forth in the body..
So also with the other numbers. Take No. 4, for example.
The ethereal substance or essence of which Kama consists when
in activity — that is, in motion — has the qualities or properties
which we call passions and desires, and " emotions " of all sorts
as hope, fear, love, hate, anger, pity, and all our many instinct-
ive or intuitive attractions and repulsions, the operation of
which is mostly set down by orthodox physiology to " uncon-
scious cerebration," or even to "reflex action." The com-
pound or manifold nature of each of the other principles is
likewise evident, even of Atma itself, the peculiar properties of
which are commonly called " attributes of God ; " though, more
justly, the only attribute to be predicated of pure spirit, aside
from its manifestation in mind or matter, is its unknowableness,
— its no-thingness.

Again, each one of these principles, from Nos. 2 to 6 inclusive,
is the connection, bond, or link between two others. Thus, Jiva,
or vitality, keeps a man alive by uniting his ghost to his body.
When Jiva is broken or dissipated, a man literally " gives up the
ghost; " that is to say, his body is separated from the rest of
him, and he may consist then of Nos. 3 to 7. Dead and bodiless
to the world and ceased to exist on the physical plane, as he is,
he has nevertheless a substantial ghost, an essential soul, and as
much of the other qualities as he has succeeded in developing

2

•I 8 EDITOR'S PREFACE.

at the time his physical body is withdrawn from him by the loss
of its vitality. Thus also the Linga, or astral form, is that part of
man which unites his animal soul, or " spiritual body," with his
vitality, and so with his physical body. We might also illustrate
the idea by reference to the other principles of human constitu-
tion ; but the reader will readily carry it out for himself. I will
only observe that breaks or solutions of continuity in the series
are necessary and inevitable in the course of nature from No. t
to No. 4 inclusive ; but ruptures between the higher numbers
depend entirely upon the man himself. Will is the secret here ;
by will, No. 4 hangs on to No. 5. Will is " free " just in so far
as it is reasonable, rational, and intelligent, — that is, is joined to
No. 5 ; it is fettered just in so far as it is sunk in the body of
desire, and by so much is irrational, — as any man may become
who habitually gives way to passion. This No. 4 is the place
where every man must fight his battle of life, where literally his
soul is in the balance. No. 4 is a spiritual body, — that is, has size
and shape ; it is semi- spiritual, semi-material ; if it is not united
with the higher principles, there is nothing to hold it together or
keep it " alive " indefinitely after the death of the body. So a man
" loses his soul ; " it goes to pieces like Nos. i, 2, and 3. Some
people are so beastly that they make the break between Nos. 4
and 5 before their bodies die in this world. We elbow soulless
people every day. They have Jiva enough to move their bodies

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

19

about, and a kind of ghost in them which makes them look
and act like brutes ; they go through the motions of instinct,
passion, and other irrationalities. But come to die, what is
there about them to survive the process of physical dissolution
that any plant or worm does not also possess ?

The most fateful interest possible hinges upon the connections
of No. 5. When a man has thrown off Nos. 3, 2, and i, and is
therefore in the other world, in exactly the state to which his
manner of living in this world has brought him, — what then?
Supposing that a break should occur between No. 5 and No. 6,
what becomes of Manas, the human soul ? There is no state or
condition for him to stay in permanently. If then the link be-
tween No. 5 and No. 4 is still in force, the human soul is cer-
tainly tending in the wrong direction ; gravitating morally towards
matter, not towards spirit ; and if the human soul is thus bound
to his passions and desires, he will necessarily seek to satisfy them.
According to orthodox Christians, he goes to hell ; according to
orthodox Buddhists, he is re-incarnated. The human soul is
imperishable, like everything above No. 4 ; but whether he is to
lay hold on immortality in spirituality, or to take out his immor-
tality in hell, or in a series of re-births in matter, — that depends.
There is something said, in one of the wisest and least under-
stood books extant, about a certain "second death," which the
reader may profitably ponder in the course of his further reflec-

20

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

tions on the Manas. To say more here would be to expose the
secrets of at least one soul ; and these are among the things
which, as Paul says, "it is not lawful to utter." Paul was an
adept in Theosophy, if his biography is correctly reported.

Respecting No. 6, a word may not be out of place ; but it is
quite enough to refer to its position between Nos. 5 and 7, and
consequently to its relations on either hand, these being those
parts of the series which it connects. If No. 5 is still rudimen-
tary in nearly all men who wear the body, and if it is the chief
business of life to develop this fifth principle (that is, if a man
cares to become immortal), we may readily assent to the pro-
position that the sixth principle, the spiritual soul, the crowning
glory of possible man, his divinity in humanity, is a mere germ
or embryo in most persons. Every few thousand years, how-
ever, it seems that a man develops it, recognizably to his fellows,
before he parts with Rupa. Names of individuals who have
accomplished this well-nigh superhuman exploit, or are believed
to have done so, will occur to each reader, who may profitably
to his own spiritual embryo ponder the way of living which
led to such glorious results. The transfiguration of the body of
Jesus, for example, supposing it to have been effected substan-
tially as narrated, has always seemed to me the most natural,
necessary, and comprehensible event of his life ; for if he was
filled, as it is said, with the spirit of God before he " died," what

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

21

other effect could such an influx of Atma have more readily and
reasonably produced? Almost any man's face can light up
with No. 5 even, till the muscular and cutaneous arrangements
are visibly affected and the features are transfigured in their
expression. The consummation of this initial process of No. 5
by the action of No. 6 might be logically supposed to affect
every particle of his body ; if so, it would take him, not at all
out of himself, but out of this world. Conversely, it is logical
to suppose that the only reason why people must die, as they all
appear to do, in the present fourth round of the evolution of
humanity, is because they do not know how to mature No. 5
and develop No. 6 to the extent of informing all the lower
numbers.

Nearly all people live in the gamut of Nos. i to 4, with just
enough No. 5 to construct syllogisms respecting the lower num-
bers and indulge in guesses, sneers, or pleasantries respecting
the higher ones, according to the bent of their No. 4, This is
the necessary folly of " fourth-rounders," as we call those who
live up to No. 4 only, and therefore cannot of course be ex-
pected to know that the egg of No. 5 which they incubate con-
tains in itself the germ of No. 6 ; consequently, it is never worth
while to be angry with such persons. " Karma " cannot be
materially accelerated or retarded, and it is much better to wait
for it than to interfere with it.

22

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

Turning now another facet of the human jewel to the light, let
us see how some sets of notions or systems of thought which
people have, reflect the facts in the case. The perspicacious
reader may have already noticed in foregoing paragraphs how
curiously and readily some of our most familiar and homespun
expressions fit into this Oriental scheme, which seems at first
glance such a strange exotic. Let us inquire into some other
names of things now more or less fashionable.

" Science," in the first place. Well, there is science and
science. Science is only another name for knowledge of any
kind. The great difficulty with and defect of most of the
accredited and formal science of this day is that it confines its
attention to No. i almost exclusively. It does indeed look
cross-eyed at No. 2, to the extent of observing something there
and of wondering what it may be. This natural inquisitive-
ness sets science to attempt to explain No. 2 by what it knows
of No. I. But science makes a pretty bad business of this, as
everyone does who, in any harnessing up, gets the horse's head
where his tail ought to be. If I were asked, as a pedagogue, to
mark orthodox science for the way it is now reciting its lesson
of human life, and 7 were the highest mark, I should set it
down about x\.

The reason is not far to seek. Science, so-called, starts
with the false assumption that nothing can be known that the

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

23

physical senses cannot discern. The acquisitions of the scientist
are therefore confined to such vibrations or joggUngs or other
modes of rude motion as his carbon and lime and sand and the
rest of his Rupa can receive and transmit to the parts of him
that sit in judgment on these molecular disturbances. As a
scientist of this school only knows of Jiva, say, by observing that
it jerks him and other people about, he hastily concludes that
vitality has no more existence by itself than the horologity of a
clock. His mistake is this, that he fancies there are no other
kinds of matter and no other modes of motion of matter than
those of which his body is composed or is susceptible. To a
thorough-paced scientist of this complexion, matter exists only as
a chemist knows it or as a child who stubs his toe becomes aware
of it. With certain dubious loopholes for the possible existence
of some kind of stuff Hke luminiferous aether, or interstellar fluid, or
cosmic dust, his scientific attention is absolutely riveted to No. i.
Like all specialists, he magnifies his own hobby ; on the strength
and solemnity with which he rides it, you could not compliment
him more than by calling him a level-headed, broad-shouldered,
full-breasted, stiff-necked, square-toed, rational, agnostic, mate-
riahstic, atheistic scientist. In return for which delicate flattery
he will tell you all about the " known laws of matter."

But — one moment : Known to whom ? And what kind of
matter, in what kind of motion ? And, by the way, whose laws ?

24

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

Just as a good physicist knows a great deal about luminiferous
sether (even to measuring the velocity of its motions), the very
existence of which is unsuspected by most persons, so perhaps
a good psychist may know something of some other kind of
matter, or modes of motion in it, of which his friend the
physicist has no knowledge whatever.

A good psychist, psychic scientist, or scientific spiritualist —
for these are all one — has enormous advantages over his friend
the mere physicist or materialist. In the first place, the former
can find out when he chooses all the latter knows, from ordinary
text-books on the subject. Whereas the lattecr never finds out
what the former knows because he thinks he knows it already,
and so never takes the trouble to inform himself in the premises ;
or else he thinks that what he does not know cannot be found out ;
or else that it is not worth knowing ; or for fear of being called
a crank ; or for some other reason equally satisfactory to him-
self. In the second place, a psychist is able to explain, or pro-
fesses to explain, on a rational basis and according to the
definite system of his science, all the phenomena which come
under his observation. The range of phenomena which he
observes and of which he has scientific experience are chiefly
Nos. 2 to 5 inclusive. To these we may also add, of course. No. i,
for each of the psychist's ranges includes and rests upon all
below them. Whereas, if you ask any mere physicist to explain

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

25

the simplest one of his phenomena, he is dumb ; and not a
single one of his " known laws of matter/' nor his whole Rupic
code of laws, suffices to account for a single observed fact of
his Rupa even, to say nothing of Jiva, Linga, Kama, Manas,
Buddhi, and Atma. His plight would be deplorable were it not
for a friendly and fashionable guest whom he entertains, and
whose name is Agnosticus.

Here again, however, it is much to be suspected that the
psychist has his Rupic brother at as much disadvantage as before.
Psyche used to know Agnosticus when she was younger and less
discreet than she has become since she married Nous. She has
learned to keep him at a proper distance. Agnosticus is very
well in his way and place ; but everything depends upon the use
to which you put him. At last accounts Nous had called him
an ignoramus, by way of variety from Greek to Latin, and
Psyche had set him to swieeping the back-stairs.

But, seriously, rational agnosticism is the most reasonable
thing in the world if reason be permitted to fix the limits be-
tween the knowable and unknowable. The materialist draws the
line between Nos. i and 2 of the above schedule. Well, he is
right ; for him the rest is the unknowable. But he should not
find fault with his spiritualist friend the psychist because the
latter shifts the boundary of rational agnosticism farther along
the scale. The psychist knows perfectly well that everything

26

EDITOR'S PR R FACE.

that is in himself and of which he is composed can be known
to him ; item, that everything outside himself which corresponds
to what is in himself can also be known. He is a person who
knows his own Nos. i to 4 scientifically ; recognizing, distin-
guishing, classifying, and describing these several principles, and
perceiving their proper relations to one another, which is science.
He also knows that all these principles are more or less material,
with diminishing materiality and increasing spirituality from
No. I to No. 4. They are consequently to him objective
reahties ; for he can say of each and every one of his principles
below No. 5, " This is not that which I am ; this is but one of
my belongings, proof of which I find in the fact that I can think
of it as not me ; I can pay attention to it or not, as I can to any
other object. My subjectivity, the ' I am I,' is one thing, that
is another." Here the psychist has to stop, because he is at the
end of his developed principles. He sets his rational agnosti-
cism, which the Rupic sciohst fixes between Nos. i and 2, just
above No. 5, because what little No. 5 there is in him does
not suffice to carry him any farther. But this is a great way ;
and this height is attained only by the exercise of the whole set
of faculties from No. 5 downward.

Persons who reach this height are the world's great philoso-
phers, whose love of wisdom makes them wise. But even these
do not permit their rational agnosticism to blind them to

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

27

the reasonable inference that there may also be some things
which they have not found out, owing to the incomplete de-
velopment of their No. 5. Having before them the reputed
examples of some human beings who seem to have known more
than philosophy teaches, they have faith at least that the germ
of Buddhi may grow up in them in due time.

No system of true philosophy, therefore, should fall short of
No. 5, where reason necessarily ends. Philosophy should con-
tent itself with reason, not presume to set itself above reason.
It is the business of Faith (another name for No. 6 in embryo)
to be above reason, even in her rudimentary movements.
Those in whom Buddhi — Illumination, or Divine Wisdom — de-
velops do not lose their reason, or necessarily any of their prin-
ciples, down to Rupa; but they carry them all along, finally
exalt reason to their own glorious estate, and drop everything
from No. 4 downward. These are adepts, prophets, and seers,
— saviors of men, avatars of God, knowing all that men can
know. Their "rational agnosticism," — what has become of it?

Returning a little now from a true system of philosophy,
which embraces everything up to No. 5 inclusive, how shall we
define what a true and proper system of science should be ? I
should say that science differs from philosophy by only one
degree ; that is, it takes in everything below and excepting
the I am I " which constructs the system. Leave this out,

28

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

exclude subjectivity, and what is left is the objectivity of man
and the rest of nature, — phenomena, in a word, as distinguished
from noumena. Since all the parts of man, below his " mind,"
" Nous," or " Manas," are objective and substantial, and more or
less material, and are not himself, but his furnishings (as above
said already), these are all proper objects of scientific investiga-
tion, and they furnish the basis and fabric of the proper system
of science. So far are they from being the " unknowable " (as
some falsely assert), that they are not only knowable, but known,
as suitable and demonstrable objects of scientific physical and
psychical research,

I would therefore most earnestly urge, while I consciously
demand, that nothing be called "scientific," much less a system
of science, that is not based upon the kiiown facts in the case of
Nos. I, 2, 3, and 4.

If my friends are to be believed, I had quite a reputation as
a scientist at one time from some writings I pubhshed respecting
a few facts I had ascertained about Rupa. I should be dis-
inclined to admit that soft impeachment now ; and by the same
token I doubt very much if others have not to come up to
another standard before I can return the compliment without
flattery.

Phenomenal spiritualism, or the set of occurrences and body
of facts which go by that name, I consider to be so far an

EDITORS PREFACE.

29

advance in scientific knowledge beyond the orthodox science of
this Sadduceeic day that perhaps I have marked it too low on the
foregoing diagram. Much of it (I mean of course the actual
facts, without any reference to the lying and cheating that go
on under cover of the name), I think, is little above Rupa, or
ordinary physical science. Much more of it can be explained
by good sound physiology that is, on the principles of a physi-
ology which recognizes Jiva, No. 2, as a material force in action.
But the scientific facts of Linga, No. 3, are a range of phe-
nomena as common as any delicate experiments in a chemist's
laboratory and as well known to psychic scientists as a chemist
knows oxygen or hydrogen, — better, in fact, than the physicist
knows light, heat, or electricity. I am far from sure that the
range of these phenomena which I have observed has not run
in some cases up to No. 4 ; but I wish at this present speaking
to keep largely within bounds.

Philosophical spiritualism is another and a higher thing, wliich
I know not where to limit in the upward direction. It does not
seem to me to stop much, if any, short of discerning Buddhi,
No. 6 : and the religious philosophy which may be based upon
it is certainly boundless.

I have said what I think the excellent word " physiology "
should really mean. But I wish that the sadly abused term
" psychology " could be rooted out of the dictionary or con-

30

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

signed to the same limbo where " theology " has already been
put by sound science and wise philosophy. Psychology " means
anything, from the vagaries of superstitious spiritualism to a sys-
tem of mental philosophy or a code of metaphysics. Just as we
have the good word " physics " for all the physical or Rupic
sciences, I should like to see " psychics " replace psychology ;
with the distinct understanding that it is to mean the reach of
science above Rupa, No. i, and below Buddhi, No. 6. It would
therefore be the range of scientific facts on the planes of Jiva,
Linga, Kama, and Manas. Plato meant No. 4 when he spoke
of " Psyche ; " and the chief interest as well as the greatest
utility of psychics hinges on the phenomena of No. 4.

As to orthodox religion, I fear that should I express my
convictions, dogmatic theology, as commonly preached in this
country and accepted by many persons, would fare worse un-
der my pen than Rupic science; for the simple reason that
it does not pretend to be scientific, has slight claims to be con-
sidered philosophic, and does not appear to me to more than
grope in the dark after Buddhi or Atma. Protestantism in
particular seems to me to be the form without the substance
and the figment without the fact. I am not now speaking of
the spirituality or real religion of any human being, but of pro-
fessional, formal, or dogmatic theology. As a matter of fact,
people's orthodox religion seems to have for the most part got

EDITOR'S PREFACE. 3 1

along without much help from scientific psychics, and to be
quite too fine a thing to accept any assistance firom physical
science. I can make little of it beyond what I once called
"homuncular vibratiunculations," — "those little creeps which
little men mistake for true religion." It seems to subsist
mainly in the emotions and other perturbations of No. 4 on the
part of persons who are worried about their souls, — as well
they may be, if half we hear preached be true, — these Kamic
fluctuations being undertaken to be quieted by various methods
of treatment devised or practised by other persons whose No. 5
is too rudimentary or too weak or too warped to be reUed
upon.

Religious philosophy, however, is quite another thing, as
different from emotional orthodoxy as philosophical spiritualism
can be from the mere phenomena upon which it is so securely
grounded.

The whole extent of the differences between the various sects
and creeds of Protestantism may be safely set down as mere
matters of opinion of the least possible real consequence ; and
any exoteric religion, like Roman Catholicism, that professes to
have a monopoly of truth, is open to the suspicion that there is
very httle about it above No. 4.

If there be any person, or any set of persons, whose range of
experiences includes all that men can scientifically know of

32

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

human and other nature, and whose sweep of thought touches
the rest of the chords in the gamut of the knowable, he or they
should know the science of sciences and the philosophy of re-
ligion. But nothing short of divine wisdom — which is etymo-
logically the meaning of the word theosophy — could exalt human
wisdom to such a pitch as this ; that is, could develop No. 6
in man to the extent of fully inaturing and informing his human
soul. To supplement knowledge by faith seems to be the only
way open to man of justifying faith by knowledge as a final
consummation of his glorious possibilities.

And how this perfect union of the human and spiritual soul
with the One Spirit — this at-one-ment of Manas with Atma
by Buddhi — would differ firom humanity's becoming one with
divinity by wisdom, is a mere matter of words. The seminal
stirrings of the spirit in man, the germinal reaction of his nature,
inform the visions of the Christian's heaven and prophesy to
the Buddhist in his dreams of Nirvana.

The Author of the following contribution to psychics will
never be known ; such is his desire, and it should be respected,
without inquiry into his motives. Personally he is well known
to the Editor as a wise and learned man, highly versed in
physics and chemistry, as well as in the art of the medical pro-

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

33

fession, of extensive and varied information acquired in nearly
all parts of the world, and a veteran spiritualist in the proper
sense of the term. The almost invincible repugnance of the
true occultist to tell what he knows may be read between every
line of his composition. But while thus masking himself, he
fences very steadily ; and, so far from overstepping the line of
safety, he keeps very largely within bounds. So guarded and
reserved is his attitude that something like the foregoing Pre-
face seemed almost necessary to show where he really stands.
Thus, for example, when he speaks of " life " he means Jiva,
biogen, No. 2 of the foregoing schedule. " Matter " for him is
not only its chemico-physical states as known to the schools,
but a range of material qualities, attributes, and potencies. His
"mind," or "conscious ego," is No. 5. A duality in the nature
of man's individual constitution, the " other self," towards which
the general drift of his contention goes, is No. 3, the astral form,
as a substantial objective reality, and he reaches it by discussing
known facts respecting No. 2, the Hfe-principle, or vitality. Thus
he finds in man's ghost the actual thing which he desires to es-
tablish as the link between mind and matter. Refer once more
to the diagram, and observe that No. 3 is exactly intermediate
between Nos 5. and i.

" Can Matter Think ? " may therefore be confidently recom-
mended to those who wish to be helped out of the ditch of

3

34

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

blind physics or crass materiality, and to take the first steps in
psychics on safe and sure scientific grounds. It is specially to
be commended to clergymen and other teachers who have
occasion to instruct their respective charges in anything beyond
chemistry and physics, and desire something tangible on which
to base their remarks. Professors of religion may recall the
objurgation of the Reverend George Herbert, " Woe be to the
man who reads but one book ! " and some professors of science,
who make so many books that they have no time to open the
Bible, will find, should they take the trouble, some very pertinent
observations with which Ecclesiastes concludes.

ELLIOTT COUES.

1726 N Street, Washington, D.C.,
January i, i886.

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF
MATTER?

'HE law of action and reaction is not limited in its applica-

tion to the domain of physics. Currents and counter-
currents of thought sway men's opinions, and there is drift as
well as active progression toward results. The swing of the
pendulum is ever from one extreme to its opposite, passing and
re-passing a point that lies between, — the point from which
alone safe departures can be taken in the search for truth.

The question. Whither are we tending ? was never more per-
tinent than at this period of upheaval and disruption, when the
dicta of science and the dogmas of religion, established formulas
and cherished creeds, are alike assailed ; when untrammelled
liberty of thought and freedom of opinion are sweeping away
the crude assumptions, the hasty generalizations, the myths and

36 THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

superstitions of the past, and together with them some beliefs
that were well grounded, some truths that, " crushed to earth,
will rise again." The positivism and agnosticism that pervade
the philosophy of the day are bitterly intolerant even of specula-
tions not in accord with their spirit. On the one hand, we are
told that nothing beyond the scrutiny of the bodily senses is at-
tainable j on the other, that there is nothing beyond, or nothing
worthy of an effort to attain. But the pendulum will have its
swing, the tide its ebb and flow, the magnetic needle its oscilla-
tions, and truth will still be found.

It is not my purpose to discuss this subject in its broader
bearings, but solely in a special application. Still less is it my
design to question the high authority or to undervalue the re-
sults achieved by those earnest workers and profound thinkers
who have become the exponents of a system of philosophy that
has contributed to the sum of human knowledge as much by
what it has overthrown as by what it has built up, — a system
that has substituted exact processes for loose experimentation,
and rational inferences and logical deductions for unwarrantable
conclusions and questionable results.

The consideration of Professor Huxley's assertion that "thought
is a function of matter" (" Lay Sermons," No. 7) brings us face
to face with a problem, insoluble it may be, but of such pro-
found significance, of such paramount importance, that its

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER? 7,^

discussion is well worthy of our best efforts. Should an attempt
to offer a plausible hypothesis, constructed upon a somewhat
different basis, result in absolute failure, it must be remembered
that distinctly enunciated errors gain a positive value from
their refutation, and that no honest endeavor to push inquiry
into the realms of the unknown can be altogether in vain, even
if no better purpose be served than to indicate a false departure
or a lame and impotent conclusion.

Automatism,, the strictly spontaneous, automatic actions and
movements of organisms, from those of an amoeba to those of
the highest composite forms, have been most diligently investi-
gated and elaborately described. Reflex action, under the
influence of which most complicated movements are executed
and most important functions are performed, needs no elucida-
tion here. It is enough to say that the new-born human infant
affords as perfect an illustration of complex organic automatism
as a single amoeba or white blood-corpuscle does of simple
automatic acts ; that there may be automatism of sensation and
automatic or reflex action in the suggestion of thought ; and
that an impulse of volition may respond to a sudden peripheral
impression just as surely as the flashes of light that follow a
blow on the eye become its subjective reflex creations.

The question is not whether thought may be automatic in
origin, but whether it be necessarily and always so. If thought

38

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

be a function of matter, it must be referable to that form of
matter of which the substance of the brain is made up, and this
organ must then be considered a piece of automatic mechanism
capable of producing it. That it may be, in a certain sense and
partially, is admissible ; but that what we recognize as brain-
substance is the prime source, the ultimate cause, of all that is
implied by the term "mind," cannot be conceded. Steam ma-
chinery may be fitted with many automatic appliances, water
and fuel may be supplied, dampers be raised and closed, com-
plicated valve-gear be worked by self-acting mechanism, and still
a place and most responsible duty be found for an engineer.

Evidence of automatic action, of effect following cause without
the intervention of volition, even in certain processes involv-
ing thought, does not affect the question at issue. Brain-sub-
stance either is an originator, a creator, fabricating or evolving
among the products of its combustion emotion, volition, thought,
and every so-called mental attribute, or it is but an instrument
of something beyond itself, of something that antedates it, of
something because of which it is. Illimitable potency resides
in, pertains to, what we recognize as matter, or it does not.

The conception of the potential existence of what I have
vaguely designated as something is, it must be confessed, a
" ponderously difficult " one. But it must be remembered that
the base line of our observations is being constantly extended ;

THOUGHT A- FUNCTION OF MATTER? 39

that problems deemed insoluble have been solved ; that even
things called impossible have become accomplished facts;
that the ponderously difficult of yesterday has become less so
to-day.

A cursory glance at some of the attained and at some of the
prospective results of comparatively recent investigations in
various departments of natural science will show that matter,
that organized and inorganic forms, that the imponderable ele-
ments, as they were called, — more recently, the forces of
nature, — are presented to us under aspects widely differing
from those of a few years ago.

Impenetrability in a sense formerly employed cannot now
properly be applied to any form or condition of matter with
which we are familiar, all bodies being made up of molecules
separated from each other by distances greater than their sup-
posed dimensions ; a mass of iron, for instance, is not the solid,
impenetrable, motionless thing it was thought to be, but an
aggregation of particles that are not in contact, that are free to
move, and that are in unceasing motion. Professor J. Clerk
Maxwell thus states his conception of the state of motion in
which are the molecules of the most solid matter : —

" Visible bodies apparently at rest are made up of parts, each of
which is moving with the velocity of a cannon-ball, and yet never
departing to a visible extent from its mean place."

40

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

In a recent paper on Atoms, Molecules, and Ether-Waves,
Professor Tyndall makes the following statements : —

" When water is converted into steam, the distances between the
molecules are greatly augmented, but the molecules themselves con-
tinue intact. We must not, however, picture the constituent atoms
of any molecules as held so rigidly as to render intestine motion
impossible. The interlocked atoms have still liberty of vibration.
The constituent atoms of molecules can vibrate to and fro millions
of millions of times in a second. The atoms of different molecules
are held together with varying degrees of tightness ; they are tuned,
as it were, to notes of a different pitch. The vibrations of the con-
stituent atoms of a molecule may, under certain circumstances,
become so intense as to shake the molecules asunder. Most mole-
cules — probably all — are wrecked by intense heat, or, in other
words, by intense vibratory motion."

Heat adds motion enough to separate molecules of water into
steam ; but to shake the molecules themselves to pieces requires,
as will be seen, the more intense motion of electricity, which,

tearing its way through the molecules of water, gives a motion
to the atoms far more intense than that w^hich ordinary heat can
give." And Professor Helmholtz does not hesitate to tell us
that " the electricity which permeates all matter, and is like an
envelope to all atoms, is itself apparently composed of atoms,
only infinitely finer than any others." Professor Maxwell, to

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER? 4 1.

whom I have already referred, the highest authority upon elec-
tricity since Faraday, speaks of particles of electricity, and says
that an electric current consists of a file of particles.

Professor Crookes has illustrated what he terms " the fourth
state of matter," — a form or condition vastly more rarefied than
that of the lightest substance known. Radiant matter, if its
existence be verified, gives us another step in ascending series.
We may pass from solids to liquids, from liquids to gases, from
aeriform to radiant matter, and even beyond (I quote from the
Introduction to Ganot's " Elements of Physics "), to —

"That subtle, imponderable, and eminently elastic fluid called;
the ether, distributed through the entire universe, pervading the
mass o£ all bodies, the densest and most opaque as well as the
lightest and most transparent. . . . Not merely do the atoms of'
bodies communicate motion to the atoms of the ether, but the latter
can impart it to the former. Thus the atoms of bodies are at once
the sources and the recipients of motion. All physical phenomena,
referred thus to a single cause, are but transformations of motion."

The " forces of nature," — heat, light, electricity, magnetism,
galvanism, the " imponderable elements " of our school-boy
days, — have been resolved into " modes of motion and they
are now distinctly recognized as such, each being convertible
into the other, all being expressed by the tenn " matter in
motion.^'' I quote again from the same authority : —

42

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

" In the present state of science we cannot say whether they
[the forces of nature] are properties inherent in matter, or whether
they result from movements impressed on the mass of subtle and
imponderable forms of matter diffused through the universe. The
latter hypothesis is, however, generally admitted."

There is a growing tendency to extend this generalization still
farther, — to make it cover Force, the proximate cause of all
motion and all conditions in matter considered as apart from
recognized modes of motion. This view has the support of
many high authorities, but it is not the received doctrine of the
schools. It is asserted that certain physical facts are inexplicable
under the hypothesis, and that established laws of motion are
ignored by it. It is not my purpose to enter into this discussion,
but merely to call your attention to the existence of opinions
which are as well defended as sharply assailed. I will quote a
few sentences that fairly present the view referred to : —

" The physical thing which energizes and does work in and upon
ordinary matter is a separate form of matter, infinitely refined and
infinitely rapid in its vibrations, and thus able to penetrate through
all ordinary matter and to make everywhere a fountain of motion,
no less real because unseen. It is among the atoms of the crystal
and the molecules of living matter ; and whether producing locked
effects or free, it is the same cosmic thing, matter in motion, which
we conceive as material energy and with difiiculty think of as only
a peculiar form of matter in motion.^''

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MA TTER ?

In this view, potency is not denied to matter, but is relegated
to inappreciable forms of it that permeate all ordinary matter,
through which its effectual action becomes manifest.

Some recent results of spectroscopic analysis have an impor-
tant bearing upon the question of the number of substances to be
recognized as elementary ; and one of the most distinguished
physicists of the day, Mr, Lockyer, has suggested the possibility
that the varied forms of matter, simple and complex, are but
presentations of diversified properties, of temporary conditions,
of that which is essentially one and the same forever. This con-
clusion, merely hinted at as being within the limits of possibility,
is but an expression of theoretical views, for the origin of which
we must look back to the remote past, beyond the recognized
history of science, to an era when knowledge was attained, if at
all, by means we now ignore.

Till within a comparatively recent date, books and lectures
on physics supplied merely collections of interesting but discon-
nected facts, and systematic attempts even to penetrate the
mysteries of living organisms had scarcely been made. A few
formulas, startling by their complexity, embodied all that was
actually known of the chemistry of organism ; and these mere
suggestions of possible future progress, these stepping-stones
scattered here and there over the approaches to a new field of
inquiry, were regarded as supreme efforts of intellectual scrutiny

44 THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

and acumen. To what dungeons have they led ! In what
ponderous tomes have not these records of wrecked cerebration
already been entombed !

But a few months ago we were called upon to mourn the
close of a career of unsurpassed brilliancy, of unparalleled use-
fulness, and we felt that a star of the first magnitude had been
lost to our firmament. In thought or words we paid our tribute
of respect to the memory of one whose earnest love of truth
for truth's own sake, whose life-long unselfish devotion to the
discharge of a holy trust, had gained for him an undying name.
There were other zealous workers in the same field, others,
doubtless, who contributed their full quota to the brilliant re-
sults achieved ; but to him the praise, — palmam qui meruit,
ferat, — to him, the calm scholar who had learned " to labor
and to wait."

The lesson of the life of Darwin, with its simple honesty of
purpose, its self-abnegation, its unrequited, scarcely acknowl-
edged toil, its steadfast pursuit, its grand results, can best be
told in such words as these : —

" Keep for yourself the guerdon and the gold ;
What God hath graved, God's prophet must unfold."

Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, whose name is worthy of nothing
less than the second place as a student of nature, writes thus
of Darwin : —

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

45

" We might have gone on to this day ever accumulating fresh
masses of fact, while each set of workers became ever more and
more occupied in their own departments of study, and, for want
of any intelligible theory to connect and harmonize the whole, less
and less able to appreciate the labors of their colleagues, had
not Charles Darwin made his memorable voyage round the world,
and thenceforth devoted himself, as so many had done before him,
to a life of patient research in the domain of organic nature. But
how different was the result ! Others have added greatly to our
knowledge of details, or have created a reputation by some impor-
tant work ; he has given us new conceptions of the world of life
and a theory which is itself a powerful instrument of research, has
shown us how to combine into one consistent whole the facts ac-
cumulated by all the separate classes of workers, and has thereby
revolutionized the whole study of nature."

By the light of evolution, the method and meaning of which
Darwin interpreted, page after page of the book of nature can
now be read consecutively where before but isolated words and
here and there an obscure sentence could be deciphered. Unity
in design and singleness in purpose have been recognized where
conflict and antagonism prevailed before. Attempts at investi-
gation that were diffuse, erratic, and to little purpose have been
systematized ; and as a consequence, from divisions and subdivi-
sions that were unmeaning, inefficient from their unsatisfactory
processes and fragmentary results, a science has had its birth.

46

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MA TTER ?

All that is known, all that is to be known, of the reactions be-
tween matter that is plastic and life that is potential, of the
resultant outward forms and inwrought characters, comes within
- the scope of biology. Such being the factors in the problems
with which the biologist has to deal, with what humility should
he approach, with what earnestness pursue, his task !

It has been my object to show, by a glance at the existing
status of natural science, that the way has been cleared for in-
quiries that involve the consideration of what is implied by such
terms as ''force," "motion," "life," "mind," and "thought,"
and that we can at least approach their discussion with more
confidence, because of new light.

But to return to the point from which so wide a digression
has been made, — the extreme difficulty of the conception of the
potential existence of that something of which the brain is not the
creator hut the instrument, of that something for which and
because of which the brain is.

Professor Tyndall, in his Belfast Address, says, —

" I do not think your theory of instruments goes at all to the
bottom of the matter. The telegraph operator has his instruments,
by means of which he converses with the world ; our bodies possess
a nervous system which plays a similar part between the perceiving
powers and external things. Cut the wires of the operator, break
his battery, demagnetize his needle : by this means you certainly

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER? 47

sever his connection with the world ; but inasmuch as these are
real instruments, their destruction does not touch the man who
uses them ; the operator survives, and he knows that he survives.
What is there, I would ask,i in the human system that answers
to this conscious survival of the operator when the battery of the
brain is destroyed ? "

The question is well put. It does not, however, admit of a
categorical answer, "except one return from the dead.^^ From
our point of view there is no hope that a demonstration can be
reached, and I can offer but a line of thought that may prove
suggestive, as leading toward a solution. Speculations may bear
us beyond the support of facts ; they may be freely indulged in,
however, and no risk 'mcxmt^, provided facts be not tampered
with. For assertions of fact, a man is responsible to the world ;
for opinions that are harmless, only to himself.

Professor Huxley says ("Lay Sermons," No. 12) : —

" Living bodies may be regarded as nothing but extremely com-
plex bundles of forces held in a mass of matter, as the complex
forces of a magnet are held in the steel by its coercive force."

1 Answer : The Human Soul, Manas, the conscious ego, subsisting
in reason, intelligence, memory, and volition, acting upon the physical
mechanism of the human constitution by the intermediation of the
" spiritual body " or animal soul, Kama ; which latter survives the disso-
lution of the physical body, Rupa, the dissipation of the life-principle,
jfiva, and even the disintegration of the astral form, Linga, — thus con-

48

THOUGHT A FUNCTION- OF MATTER?

Clearly there is something in living organisms besides their
determinable chemical constituents and visible material. What
is it ? A complex bundle of forces held in a mass of matter by
another (presumably) simple force, conveys no very definite
meaning. The phraseology, however, is entirely in accord
with received views, that concede to living organisms no essen-
tial characteristics, no distinguishing qualities or attributes, that
may not be described as higher degrees of complexity than
are possessed by inorganic substance. Life, in this view, means
nothing but that a greater number of forces are combined to
produce, by movements more complex, forms that are more
varied, and to perform functions that are more important than
those that pertain to the inorganic world.

It has been very pertinently asked (" Biogen," p. 9), " What
is the difference between a living and a dead amoeba? " I be-
lieve it to be a material one in both senses of the word ; and,
d, fortiori, I believe the difference between a living and a dead
man to be absolutely, if not demonstrably, material.

We know that living organisms are made up of atoms and
molecules (or particles) that are in ceaseless motion ; we know
that their substance is permeated by forms of matter that are

tinuing to give form to the human soul after the death of the lower prin-
ciples, and to perpetuate individual conscious volitional being for an
indefinite period.

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER? 49

vastly more tenuous than their visible material ; and we may rea-
sonably infer that the movements of this matter are of inexpres-
sible rapidity and complexity j we know that the result of these
combined motions is the development and maintenance of com-
posite forms that possess distinctly marked individual character-
istics. Of ultimate causation — of the origin of force, of motion
— we are profoundly ignorant ; we know of them only through
effects produced. The forms, the conditions, all the results
attained by living beings, are so radically different from those
reached by unorganized substance that we must refer them to
an essentially different proximate cause, which we call life, of
the origin of which we know nothing, but which we recognize
by certain manifestations of its presence, chief among them
being the individuality that pertains to every organism. From
the lowest to the highest, it is manifested alike by the outward
form, by the inwrought characteristics, by the habits, by the in-
stincts, by the intellectual and moral attributes, of living beings,
which are capable of transmission in reproduction.
Professor Tyndall (Belfast Address) says : —

" Those who have occupied themselves with the beautiful experi-
ment of Plateau will remember that when two spherules of olive-
oil, suspended in a mixture of alcohol and water of the same density
as the oil, are brought together, they do not immediately unite.
Something like a pellicle appears to be formed around the drops,

4

50 THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

the rupture of which is immediately followed by the coalescence of
the globules into one. There are organisms whose vital actions
are almost as purely physical as that of these drops of oil ; they
come into contact and fuse themselves together. ... In the Pro-
togenes of Haeckel we have a type distinguishable from a fragment
of albumen only by its finely granular character."

Protoplasm this, or organized matter of the lowest grade, in
its simplest expression ! A living Moner !

Listen now to a clear and forcible delineation by Huxley of
the " possibilities that lie dormant " in a substance scarcely, if
at all, distinguishable from protogene or from a fragment of
albumen, and of the same chemical constitution, —

" Examine the recently laid egg of some common animal, such
as a salamander or a newt. It is a minute spheroid, in which the
best microscope will reveal nothing but a structureless sack, inclos-
ing a glairy fluid holding granules in suspension. But strange
possibilities lie dormant in that semi-fluid globule. Let a moderate
supply of warmth reach its watery cradle, and the plastic matter
undergoes changes so rapid and yet so steady and purpose-like in
their succession that we can only compare them to those operated
'by a skilful modeller upon a formless lump of clay. As with an
invisible trowel, the mass is divided and subdivided into smaller and
smaller portions, until it is reduced to an aggregation of granules, —
not too large to build withal the finest fabric of the nascent organ-
ism ; and then it is as if a delicate finger traced out the line to be

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

51

occupied by the spinal column and moulded the contour of the
body, pinching up the head at one end and the tail at the other, and
fashioning flank and limb into due salamandrine proportions in so
artistic a way that, after watching the process hour by hour, one is
almost involuntarily possessed by the notion that some more subtle
aid to vision than an achromatic would show the hidden artistj^with
his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to perfect his
work."

Observed phenomena such as these so beautifully described
by Huxley are very commonly ascribed to a "law of nature,"
— a term that passes current very generally as a sufficient expla-
nation of all natural processes. It is one that could not well be
dispensed with, though in a certain sense it is objectionable :
misunderstood, it conveys too much ; not thoroughly appreci-
ated, far too little. Laws of nature, to us, are formulated de-
ductions from aggregated observed facts. They express our
knowledge of established sequences, embodying, codifying, if

1 The " hidden artist " — hidden under this metaphor or figurative
expression — is, in point of scientific material fact, a stream of what
Reichenbach called Mod, and what I call biogen, flowing into a salaman-
drine mould, and carrying in solution the molecular matter requisite to
exactly fill that mould. The mould is the imperishable "form-force" of
a salamander, invisible to the physical eye until it is filled with matter in
a state of molecular aggregation. It has permanent existence in the
" other world," and men who think about it call it the archetype of
salamanders.

52

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

you will, results of observation ; but they are not edicts, nor are
they, in any instance, deductions from all facts. They have bo
supremacy, no executive attribute, and no significance that a
single irreconcilable newly discovered fact may not destroy.
To say that certain transformations or movements of matter
take place in obedience to a " law of nature," is simply to say
that they are in accord with an orderly sequence of cause and
effect heretofore estabhshed by experience, that they are but
repetitions of what has been observed before.

The plastic mass, the yolk-substance, of the egg referred to
contained certain determinable elements embodied in visible
form, plus an unknown quantity,^ into the value and relations of
which it is our object to inquire. It had marked characteristics ;
it worked in a certain direction, from which it could not be
swerved, toward a definite, a specific end, — namely, to render
that mass subservient to individual purposes. Call it " possibili-

1 Which is the " astral form " of the salamander, an index and equiv-
alent of form-force, working out the physical shape of the salamander
in currents of biogen, attracting and arranging molecules of ordinary
matter into an exact duplicate or material expression of itself. Grind
the actual completed salamander to jelly, dissipate every molecule by
means of chemical or electrical action, resolve the salamander into its
chemical molecular elements, and you shall not thereby have wiped out
or even altered in the slightest lineament the astral form of the creature,
which is its salamandrine individuality.

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MA TTER ?

53

ties that lie dormant ; " give it what name you please, — it must
be admitted that it possessed salamandrine individuality. That
something, that a material in esse, bearing a definite relation to a
salamander in posse, lay hidden within that semi-liquid globule,
can scarcely be doubted ; nor can it be denied that its functions
were continued beyond the embryonic stage to complete the
form and to sustain the existence of a salamander and of noth-
ing else. It would have taken, it is true, a more subtle aid to
vision than an achromatic to reveal its presence ; but that it was
there, is a conception not more difficult than many others of
which we are called upon to admit the possibility.-^

Individualism asserts itself from the inception of life ; an ovum
is its embodiment. The chemical constitution of protoplasm
and of organisms of the simplest type being nearly or absolutely
identical, their physical properties presenting no notable dissimi-

1 Yes, "it was there," as the author most truly says, — there as the
immediate, proximate, efficient " cause " of the salamander, controlling
and determining currents of biogen as a means by which molecular
matter should be shapen into a salamander. Salamandrine form-force,
the akasic mould of the creature, " was there " before the physical body
of the creature got there ; and with that measure of intelligence which
every individual form represents, it built up for itself an em.bodiment, by
which apparatus of relation the noumenal was brought into relation with
the phenomenal world, so far as a salamander can, in the nature of the
case, effect that relation. The salamander simply expressed himself in
terms of matter.

54

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

larities by which one may be distinguished from another, where
are we to look for the origin of that specific character, of that
distinct individuahty, that becomes impressed upon plasma in
process of development, if it be not to the co-ordinating, con-
trolling power of life acting primarily upon and through matter,
— " life " that is inappreciable to the physical senses, but that
has nevertheless a veritable existence ? ^

What objects in nature are more similar than two eggs, — those
of a common fowl, for instance ? So far as we can determine,
two crystals of quartz, though vastly less complex in composi-
tion, are not more alike. Mark the widely differing products, the
distinct individualities, into which are wrought these homogene-
ous and indistinguishable masses of plasma. In what had their
inception, in what had their progress to an accomplished result,

1 " Life," — meaning here not that immaterial non-entity which Huxley
has so neatly satirized in speaking of the " horologity " (time-keeping
quality) of a clock, but vitality, or the life-principle, which is materially
existent, and is manifested by special modes of motion of a known sub-
stance, a non-molecular yet atomic kind of matter, " imponderable," it is
true, and ordinarily inappreciable to the physical senses. It resides in
and forms part of the constitution of all matter, and its highest activi-
ties — those witnessed in all "living" organisms — are known to us by
the phrase " the phenomena of life." In man it is Jiva, the second — the
next to the lowest — principle of the human constitution, only one degree
removed from ordinary " matter." It is dissipated, though not destroyed,
by death.

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER? 55

the distinguishing peculiarities of outward form and all charac-
teristics so distinctly recognizable in these products, if not in
material factors inappreciable except in the end attained?
, Can one human ovum, by any means of scrutiny within our
power, be distinguished from another ? Can the difference be-
tween either and one from an animal of the lowest type be
noted? Are they identical, or does each contain within itself
something the other does not ? Is that something an abstrac-
tion, a principle, a force, a law? or is it a material factor,
through which the initial impulse is received and the co-ordi-
nating, controlHng power, the purpose of life, is worked out?
To admit that it be a material entity, I am aware, advances us
but a step, and leaves the gulf all unbridged as before. Mais
c'est le premier pas qui coiite. It is my wish to impress upon
you the veritable existence of matter in form that is inappreci-
able, in motion that is intense, and the fact that gradations of
such matter of increasing tenuity and mobility have a place and
a ftmction in the animal economy, to which they pertain and of
which they are integral parts in the same sense as the grosser,
the visible and tangible forms. It is my wish to convey also
the idea that a man's essential characteristics, his mental and
moral attributes, bear as distinct a relation to an ovum as do his
outward form and physical qualities ; that hereditary peculiari-
ties of conformation, and that tastes, proclivities, adaptations, —

56

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER'i

in short, intellectual and moral qualities, — have a veritable
existence that antedates^ the development of the visible median'
ism, which becomes their instrument and is not their cause.

There are certain terms, employed both by natural and moral
philosophers, by physicists and by metaphysicians, to convey
abstract ideas, that have little or no significance as applied to
working factors ; that are, in fact, unintelligible except in asso-
ciation with matter. Abstractly considered, as apart from mat-
ter, they have no quality or property of which we can take
cognizance. To illustrate : we may speak of " laws of force "
or of "methods of motion;" but we can form no conception
of a force that would give a rotary or a rectilinear movement, in
case it were in action, nor can we of a motion that is curved or
straight, gentle or intense, nothing being moved. We can know
nothing of the existence, potential or otherwise, of either the
one or the other. And the same may be said of such terms as
"life," "mind," "thought," essential to the expression of ab-
stract ideas, to give a name to unknown (perhaps unknowable)
quantities ; but apart from their association with living organisms,
— their reciprocal reactions, — they have no practical signifi-
cance. By themselves they express abstractions upon which we
can bring neither our perceptions nor our reason to bear. Of

1 And also " anteplaces," — to coin a word; that is, was somewhere
else before, had existed elsewhere.

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

57

life that could vivify, of mind that could control, an organism,
if embodied in one, yet never did so, because never so em-
bodied, we can have no realizing sense ; nor can we conceive
of thought apart from its association with, its communication
through, a living being. Its expression may be conveyed to
the ear, to the eye, may be absorbed and become part of our-
selves, but it has no independent existence. ^

Constituted as we are, transformations in matter alone gain
access through our senses and become appreciable. From the
periphery to the centre, — and inferentially the converse, —
from the sensorium to the organs of sense and to the extrem-
ities, nerves convey but a vibratory movement, Sound is but
the conducted thrill of a membrane set in motion by impinging
waves of air ; sight but the quivering transmitted impulse of an
ether ; touch but the transfer of motion turned in its course ;

1 That is, nobody can imagine what an "unthought thought" is.
What it may become is found in the thinking of it out. Nevertheless,
people have always speculated more about this "no-thing" than anything
else. Kabalists call it " En Soph," — that which is, yet is no thing. There
are numberless other names for this non-entity. Common people call it
" God," and pious ones worship a personification of it under that name.
But we' are so constituted that it is just as easy to think of nothing as of
something. As soon as the thought of nothing is conceived, something
has existence, — namely, the thought itself, born of nothing. So, on a
cosmic scale, is what the Orientalists call the "night of Brahm," — a
metaphysical necessity, and out of it everything that is has proceeded.

58

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

taste and smell but communicated movements. Thus we are
but the receivers of imparted motion, " and ideas, like all physi-
cal phenomena, may be referred to a single cause, — the trans-
formation [of force] of movement in matter." And what are
we — what the " conscious ego " that receives, records, responds
to a material impulse — apart from matter, divested from an or-
ganism of relation ? Nothing ! Nothing, at least, that can have
an objective existence.-^

1 And this is the reason why we, as conscious egos, are independent
of all possible permutations of matter, including those by which our
bodies undergo dissolution. If we were some material objective thing,
instead of being subjective spiritual realities, our existence would depend
upon the arrangement of the molecules of our bodies, and we should
cease to exist when these were scattered. Nothing that exists in terms
of matter can be we ; because we know matter only by our senses, and the
only knowledge our senses give us of matter is that it is not we. Matter
only affects us by modifying our states of mind ; and consequently our
knowledge of matter in its ultimate analysis is resolvable into an affection
of mind, — of mind, which for each of us owes its existence to the natural
fact that we can and must think of it as being " no-thing ; " i. e., no other
thing that we can think of. The equally natural facts, that we can think
of everything else as being not mind, and that everything else requires us
so to think of it, is the only evidence we have of the existence of the
material world which is not mind. It is a necessary logical conclusion
that matter only exists for each of us because we think that it does ; and
so, if every mind should stop thinking about everything excepting itself,
the world would be de-materialized, so far as we are concerned. Take a
single specific case, — a lump of sugar. When we say it is " sweet," the

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTERI 59

What is life? If it mean movement, change, progress, it is
everywhere, — above, beneath, and all about us, pervading all
things that the most powerful and the most subtle aids to vision
enable us to behold. Who shall say, " Here life is ; there it is
not? " For in nature all things merge the one into the other,

utmost we can really mean is that it has the capacity of producing in us
the state of mind we call "sweetness." But that is in us, not in the
sugar, in other words, sugar is not sweet unless it is tasted, and, by
appropriate machinery, has produced in us a " modification of the inter-
nal organ" {manas, as the Eastern philosophers call it). The "sweet-
ness " of sugar would be unknown and unknowable if there were nothing
but sugar in existence. Mind it is, and not matter, which causes the
sweetness of sugar to exist and be known to exist. So of all the other
properties, qualities, and attributes of sugar ; and so the same for any
and all things which are matter, and not mind. Whence it appears that
matter only exists in mind, as already said. It is no counter argument
for the real, actual, and permanent existence of matter, that it continues
to affect us in given ways ; that is only to say that we — successive crops
of minds, or a continuous series of mind — keep thinking about it in
pretty much the same way. It is simply the observed sequence of cause
and effect ; mind or spirit being so constituted that it cannot stop think-
ing, — i. e., cannot cease to be conscious of itself, or cease to be modified
by everything that is not itself. To think " matter," and to be conscious
of the modification of itself which results from the thought, is the function
of mind. This brings us round again to the dependence of matter upon
mind for its knowable existence. If thought were a function of matter, a
lump of sugar might be as capable of tasting us and knowing our minds
as we are of tasting it when it and we are brought into mutual relations.
Perhaps it is ; at any rate it ought to be, if matter can think.

6o

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MA TTER ?

there are no abrupt transitions, and lines of demarcation are but
artificially established landmarks fi:om which fresh departures
may be taken. Not alone in our immediate surroundings, but
in the cosmos, in the universe, harmony, — adaptation of parts,
each to the other and each to the whole, — prevails everywhere.
" The animal fades away by insensible gradations into the vege-
table, and the vegetable into the mineral. Element also corre-
sponds to element, and this world to other worlds." In organism,
evolution has traced a chain of beings perpetually rising in com-
plexity and importance of form and function, till it has bridged
the abyss from monad to man. To understand the conditions
under which inorganic matter has taken up this onward march,
is as far beyond our comprehension as is the point of the in-
ception of life beyond our scrutiny. Of what undying, inex-
tinguishable flame the vital spark was a scintillation; where
begun, and how, this process of development by differentiation ;
when was first consummated this union of blended material
forces, — we are profoundly ignorant. We recognize in organ-
isms, dual in structure and function as in origin, the result
of these forces ; in man, their highest culmination. Living
beings as they are, not as they were or may become, are the
objects of our inquiry ; and in them, as in all nature's works,
we must look for the harmonious blending of mutually depen-
dent parts, and not for incongruities, antagonisms, or disrup-

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER? 6 1

tions. From the lowest in type, the simplest in structure, to
the highest, the most complex, they are molar aggregations of
molecules of matter grouped to constitute an individual. They
are made up not only of matter that is visible and palpable, but
also of forms of it that are rarefied and tenuous to a degree that
we can neither estimate nor express, and at the same time that
are in motion, the intensity of which is in direct ratio to their
tenuity. Can it be doubted that distinguishing individual char-
acteristics in process of embryonic development are referable
to these invisible but essential forms or conditions of matter, —
of matter (I repeat a quotation) " infinitely refined and in-
finitely rapid in its vibrations, and thus able to penetrate through
all ordinary matter and to make everywhere a fountain of mo-
tion no less real because unseen?" Of such matter science
distinctly admits the existence ; its function is, in fact, a phy-
sical necessity. Into such forms of matter, of "matter in
motion," the forces of nature, as they were termed, have been
authoritatively resolved ; pertaining to living beings in the same
sense as does their grosser substance, this vastly more tenuous
material is made subservient to the same purposes, — namely,
to the development and maintenance and also to the perform-
ance of the functions of the simplest and of the most complex
organisms. " In exquisite adaptation to reciprocal necessities,
the parts of living organisms merge one into another, that which

62

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

establishes a relation between two, partaking of the nature of
both."

The establishment of a relation between mind and matter,
between perception and the organs of sense, between volition
and the mechanism it employs, has exercised in vain the facul-
ties of closest observers and of most profound thinkers of the
Western world. Physicists and metaphysicians alike have been
baffled. A third quantity, partaking of the nature of both, must
be found, to determine a relation between the two that are
given. This quantity must be sought for in intermediate forms}
The idea is by no means a new one ; it is as old as the human
mind or body. Mr. Benjamin Howard, in an ingenious and
highly interesting paper read some years ago before a London
Society, puts it in this shape : —

"We pass from solid matters, such as the metals, to the liquids;
from liquids to the gases ; from the gases to radiant matter ; from
radiant matter to the forces of nature, — gravitation, magnetism,
light ; from force to sensation ; from sensation to thought, idea,
purpose ! Here, too, as with animal and vegetable life, we may
well believe that there is no break of continuity ; and here also it
may be well to direct for the time our attention to intermediate
forms, forms of which we can say r either 'These are material,' nor
* These are spiritual.' "

1 For example, in Nos. 4, 3, and 2 of the diagram ; see Preface, p. 13.

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

63

For the term " forces of nature " substitute, in accordance
with more recent views, " matter in motion," and the same in-
termediate forms have been presented for your consideration.

It will naturally be said that the assumed interposition of
matter, be it never so fine, in motion be it never so intense,
leaves the question under discussion just where it was; that
thought, though its thread be spun and its warp and woof be
woven by mechanism vastly more subtle than that of any visible
substance, and that mind, however lofty its aspirations, however
grand its achievements, — thought and mind alike are still but
functions of matter.

But there is another view, a tenable hypothesis, to which it
has been my endeavor to direct your attention.

Living forms are but the outward, visible presentment, the
embodiment, of individualities, the material investiture, the
moving matter of which has its place and function in the plastic
mass of every living germ, upon which germ not only are initial
movements impressed, but also a controlling influence is con-
tinuously maintained, an influence subservient to individual
purposes. Thus interlocked and interlocking, dual organisms,
acting and reacting, each fiUing the requirements of the other,
become merged in perfected union, and both advance pari
passu to the condition of a matured individual. Supremacy,
co-ordination, control, in every instance ; sensation, perception,

64

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

volition, ifi the higher forms ; self-consciousness, reason, moral
responsibility, in the highest, — are functions, inherent quali-
ties, of the one part of every living being of which the other
(the counterpart) becomes the outward embodiment, the in-
strument, the apparatus of relation to present surroundings.
That which modifies, controls, uses, is not a function of, is
not created by, its instrument, which it antedates, and may
outlast.

We find that in the human organism there must be a material
intervention between the organs of sense and perception, be-
tween its visible instrument and volition, between matter, as it
is commonly understood to be, and mind. We find that the
" conscious ego " — by which term I prefer to express the indi-
viduality of man — must be brought by a material chain into
relation with an exterior form, and through it into association
with its external environments. We find, moreover, that there
is a kind of matter that pertains rather to the ego than to this
external form ; matter through which are established and main-
tained objective relations ; matter that owes not its origin to,
and that may survive, the visible substance that has become a
non-essential to life, of which it is not the cause.

Positivism recoils — and well it may ! — from such inferences,
all unsupported as they are by proof palpable.

1 See footnote, p. 66.

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

65

" Most learned Don, I know you by these tokens, —
What you can feel not, that can no one feel ;
What comprehend not, no one comprehend ;
What you can't reckon is of no account ;
What you can't weigh, can no existence have ;
What you 've not coined, that must be counterfeit."

Demonstration of the conscious survival of an operator, as in
Professor Tyndall's illustrative case of the telegrapher whose
wires are cut, whose needle is demagnetized, whose battery is
broken, cannot be reached, as I have said, " except one return
from the dead ; " and speculative views upon which no crucial
test of soundness can be brought to bear, are assailable or de-
fensible, not always in proportion to the modicum of truth, be
it more or less, upon which they are based ; their discussion
becomes at best a balancing of probabilities that may be indefi-
nitely and fruitlessly prolonged. I am aware that such as I
have expressed are peculiarly assailable ; from one standpoint,
from the position held by the science of the day, countless facts
may be hurled against them with damaging effect. They may,
too, be stoutly defended from generally conceded data. But
arguments pro and con are for the most part two-edged swords
that may be used on either side of the controversy.

I should be doing injustice to myself as well as to my subject
did I not briefly allude to the fact that an immense accumula-
tion of evidence bearing upon the question, supported by the

S

66 THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

very highest individual authorities, is necessarily excluded from
our discussion. The documents have not the official stamp of
authenticity, and could not be received by an orthodox scientific
tribunal except by special courtesy, and then as having no posi-
tive value. If the simplest asserted facts of spiritualism, mes-
merism, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and the like, beyond those
which are clearly subjective in their nature, could be conceded,^
I should hold a vantage ground and be able to reinforce my
views with vastly augmented power, if not with a force that
would compel conviction.

^ The only thing in the whole range of these supernormal and usually
supersensuous phenomena which has got any standing in the scientific
court is mind-reading, or thought-transference, which has been invested
with the scientific name of telepathy, and so made quite respectable. To
illustrate telepathy with reference to the diagram given in the Preface :
Suppose A thinks something, and wants to make B think the same.
A's thought is in his mind ; that is, in his No. 5. By physical means he
can only get it out of him, and transfer it to B, by filtering it down
through his Nos. 4, 3, 2, and i, when it finds its expression through his
body; that is, through some look, word, or move of A's. He may kick
it into B literally, or talk it into him by exciting sound-waves of air
which impinge on B's ear-drum, or look it into him by means of light-
waves which fall on B's eye. In any case, before the thought can reach
B's mind, or Nous, it has first got to strike his body physically and me-
chanically, and then be soaked up through B's No. i, 2, 3, 4, and 5 suc-
cessively, before B can think what A thinks, — a tedious, roundabout
process, truly, to which men are for the most part subjected. But is
there no shorter cut from A's No. 5 to B's No. 5 ? Any shorter cut that

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTERS 6/

Permit me to tax your patience but a few minutes more by
a brief epitome of what I have most inadequately conveyed.

The distinctive individuality that characterizes living beings
pertains to a germ as well as to an embryonic or a matured
form.

evades the physical body would be telepathic to some extent. The
following rude diagram will illustrate

Modes of Thought-transference from A to B.

A's No. 5. B's No. 5. Manas: Plane of most direct telepathy, or

I noumenopathy.

No. 4.-. ^No. 4. Kama: Plane of least indirect telepathy, or

j j psychopathy.

No 3.^ ^No. 3. Linga : Plane of more indirect telepathy, or

I phantopathy.

No. 2.--, ^No. 2. Jiva : Plane of most indirect telepathy, or

I j biopathy.

No. .--No. I. Rupa: Plane of ordinary thought-transfer,

or physiopathy.

Each of these planes has its own appropriate medium of transference, —
a kind of sublimated ethereal semi-material substance, vibrations of which
constitute the actual means of communication. Every one knows, of
course, the phenomena which occur on plane No. i ; transfer of thought
by writing, talking, ai-e familiar instances. The phenomena of animal
magnetism, mesmerism, etc., are examples of thought-transference on the
plane of No. 2, or biopathy. Higher and more direct reaches of tele-
pathy, on the planes of Nos. 3, 4, 5 respectively, are witnessed in various

68 THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

Specific characteristics have a material embodiment (in mat-
ter in motion) that bears a fixed and definite relation to the
prospective resultant of such movements as are imparted by it
to the appropriate plasma with which it is brought into relation
at what may be termed the inception of life.

Life, of which we know nothing in the abstract, in the con-
crete is a material embodiment of individuality which a living
organism possesses and a dead one does not.

Living organisms are dual in nature ; the two associated parts
may well be termed positive and negative elements, the one
being active, co-ordinating, and subjective, while the other is
passive, plastic, and objective.

The relation expressed is an unvarying one ; and up through
the chain of being this duality of organism is constantly main-
tained, with never a break, till we behold in man its full signifi-
cance and realize its true import.

Action and reaction between the parts are reciprocal, and
result in the adaptation, more or less perfect, of each to the re-
degrees of clairvoyance, clairaudience, somnambulism, "mind-reading,"
and constitute phantopathy, psychopathy, or noumenopathy, as the case
may be. The lower phenomena of "spiritualism" are largely phanto-
pathic. Theosophical adepts in the flesh habitually employ noumeno-
pathic telepathy. The London Society for Psychical Research has
demonstrated several degrees of telepathic thought-transfer.

Poor Miss Science ! If she only knew what a pert young minx that
flattering seducer Agnosticus once made of her 1

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

69

quirements of the other ; but however intimate their blending,
however close their union, there can be no interchange of
essential characteristics, established, fixed ab ovo.

In this view there is an operator, whose battery is the brain,
whose wires are nerves, but who is not necessarily obliterated
by the disruption of his instrument. In this view thought is a
function of matter ; but the part of the brain, though an impor-
tant, is a secondary one. It is truly an instrument, acted upon,
employed through the intervention of vastly more subtle material,
of which it is not the creator. This more subtle material is a
peculiar kind or state of matter pertaining to Hfe and to that
which, apart from a material embodiment, can have nothing
but a purely negative or subjective existence, which we can
express only by the Buddhistic " Nirvana," — the condition to
which rises an immortal spirit freed from the last trace of matter,
divested consequently of form, and loosened from every outward
relation, —

" All life is lived for him, all deaths are dead."
Science finds in the waste of brain- substance the coefficient of
thought, of all mental action. Emotion, volition, imagination,
memory, understanding, are the equivalents of determinable
quantities of the fatty mass. Our affections and memories, our
loves and hates, our hopes and fears, may be expressed in beef
and bread, if the equation be a perfect one.

70

THOUGHT A FUNCTION OF MATTER?

Past experiences are all a man can gain from the life he has
lived ; what would he be without memory, the faculty that
makes them his own — memory, the principle of spiritual con-
tinuity? What would he be without the record that has out-
lasted many brains? So rapidly do particles succeed each
other in this marvellously delicate organ, so constant are waste
and repair, that the brain of to-day is not the brain of yesterday.
Complete renewal is accomplished in variously estimated but
very brief periods. Part after part falls into line and fills its
place in the economy, to perform its function and then to
give way to fresh material. All tuned in accord, harmony of
action is the result, till for a time jarring, "like sweet bells
jangled, out of tune and harsh," the fabric falls in dissolution.
" The hand is gone ! Can we say, " The record tarries yet? "

Inordinate and unreasoning credulity in the past has been
replaced by extreme and unreasonable scepticism in the present.
But a reaction has set in, a counter-current of opinion is estab-
lished ; the pendulum is on its backward swing, the needle
is again approaching its cardinal point. A just mean, more
favorable to progress, more in the line of truth, will be reached
and doubtless passed, as has been the case before.

" In mediis rebus tutissimus ibis."

APPENDIX.

«>*■

AN EXCURSION TO SCIENTIFIC GHOST-LAND.

T 7 HAT may be visible to the soul's eye which pierces the veil

' * of Isis? Let us see w^hat the mind's eye of sober science
has scrutinized in the chemical and physical fabric of that veil
which no man's hand has lifted.

The least particle of matter that can be known by the physical
senses to exist is a " mass." A mass is the least quantity of mat-
ter that has any sensible physical properties. A mass is made
up of "molecules." A molecule is the least quantity of matter
that has any sensible chemical properties. A molecule is made up
of "atoms." What an atom is, no one knows. Nevertheless,
science can weigh atoms, and estimate how many molecules there
are in a given space, how heavy they are, and how fast they move
about. Let us see some of these things.

72

APPENDIX.

The molecule is the assumed unit of the physical structure of
matter, and the atom is the presumed unit of the chemical structure
of matter. To study these points, we will take some gas or air,
like hydrogen or oxygen gas, or like the air we breathe. There
are certain well-known properties of all gases, of which we will
enumerate three : —

1. The same volume of all gases, at the same temperature and
pressure, contains the same number of molecules.

2. The volume of a given mass of gas, under constant pressure
of surface impacts, varies directly as the absolute temperature.

3. The volume of a given confined mass of gas varies inversely
as the pressure.

Recognizing these facts, and making suitable experiments, sci-
ence reaches the following conclusions: —

How big is a molecule ?

The actual size of molecules is probably between 1,000,^0,000 ^nd
250,000,000 of an inch in diameter ; or about as much smaller than a
pea as an orange is smaller than our earth ! The diameter of a
molecule is also about 55;^ as long as a medium length of a wave
of light ! And remember, it takes at least two atoms to make a
molecule.

A cubic inch of gas at ordinary pressure and temperature con-
tains one hundred thousand million million million molecules ! An
absolutely unthinkable number! It is 10^3 — ten raised to the
23d power, giving a string of figures as follows : —

100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 !

How far apart are inolecules ?

APPENDIX.

73

Venus and our Earth are two planets of very nearly the same size.
During conjunction, — that is, when nearest each other, — these
planets are still separated by a distance equal to about three thou-
sand of their own diameters. This represents, relatively to the
size of molecules, about the extent of a mean excursion of a mole-
cule of atmospheric air, at ordinary temperature (60° Fahrenheit)
and pressure (thirty inches barometer). Molecules brought to-
gether to about fifty of their own diameters would still be sepa-
rated by a distance, relatively to their size, half as far again as
the Moon is from the Earth, — which would represent their mean
distance apart in our atmosphere at ordinary temperature and
pressure. Being constantly in motion, molecules collide with one
another incessantly, and this collision is assumed to be actual
dyna7nic contact. Such contact represents the normal condition
of molecules in all liquid and solid aggregations, or molar masses.

But remember that this so-called " contact" is only the nearest
approach together of the molecular dynaspheres, the dynasphere
being the sphere of a molecule's attraction and repulsion, or other
physical potency. It is no contact of the inner congeries of the
solid atoms composing the molecule ; for of any such material
diameter of a molecule we know nothing. We only know induc-
tively that when the molecules are in actual dynamic contact, the
distance from centre to centre is from the 1,0 ^,000,00 0 to the v^o.ooo^
of an inch, which estimated distance is taken as the effective size
of the molecule ; that is, as the true diameter of its dynasphere.

We will be unscientific enough for a moment to ask, What is a
''dynasphere" ? Is it something, that is, matter; or is it nothing,

74

APPENDIX.

that is, space? If the latter, then a molecule can affect another
without any physical means of communication or any known
medium of the transfer of force ; that is, molecules have purely
spiritual intercourse. If the former, then every molecule is bathed
in some subtle, rarified, infinitely attenuated kind of stuff, not any
matter known to the chemist, but something like biogen, or od, or
akasa, — a sort of molecular perisprit. Which of these two theses
is the more credible? Which is the more discreditable horn of
a very awkward dilemma ? But to return to facts and figures.

How fast do tnolecules move, and how far do they travel ?

A molecule vibrates or oscillates within certain limits of dis-
tance, in proportion to its size about as far as the distance between
Venus and the earth in proportion to the size of these planets. A
hydrogen molecule travels at a rate of 6,000 to 6,500 feet a second ;
a nitrogen molecule about i,7S4; an oxygen molecule about 1,640.
At this rate, an oxygen molecule would collide with its fellows
about 7,000,000,000 times a second. The livelier hydrogen mole-
cule would hit some 17,000,000,000 other fellows every second of
time !

The molecular vibration of the air we breathe is about of
an inch, or about ^ of a wave-length of yellow light. That is to
say, a string of 300,000 molecules darting one after another at full
speed, and farther apart from one another than the Moon is from
the Earth in proportion to their size, would only reach an inch.

How much do molecules and atoms weigh f

Since every gas, at the same temperature and pressure, has the
same number of molecules in the same space, the weight of the

APPENDIX.

75

individual molecules of any gas must be proportionate to the
weight of the gas itself. A cubic yard of the air we breathe
weighs 2 pounds. A cubic yard of hydrogen gas weighs 2^ ounces.
The weight of molecules and atoms is estimated as follows :

Hydrogen is the lightest substance that can be weighed. What
is called a "crith" is the weight of i litre (about if pints) of
hydrogen, in a vacuum, thermometer 32° F., barometer 30 inches.
A crith is about 0.09 of a gramme ; a gramme is I5|- grains ; a crith
is therefore 1.7222 grains. Now as there are some billions of
billions of molecules in a litre of any gas, it will be convenient to
represent this by n. Then each molecule of hydrogen weighs -h-
criths ; and since oxygen we know is 16 times heavier than hydro-
gen, the oxygen molecule weighs 7 criths. But a hydrogen mole-
cule consists of two atoms ; then each atom weighs J a crith.
This half-crith is called a " microcrith ; " and the microcrith thus
becomes the standard for the "atomic weight " of all bodies.

A hydrogen molecule weighs 2 microcriths.
An oxygen " " 32 *'

A nitrogen " " 28 "

A molecule of water "18 "

Of course this is no actual weighing or absolute weight either of
molecules or atoms ; but it is their comparative weight, taking
hydrogen, the lightest substance that can be weighed in bulk, or
mass, as the standard.

This way of getting at the relative gravity of all substances
which have a molecular structure brings all kinds of chemical

76

APPENDIX.

matter into the category of what are therefore called " ponderable
elements," — things that have sensible weight, if you weigh enough
of them. For it must be borne in mind that these obdurate " sci-
entific ghosts," these hard-headed atoms, composing hard-hearted
molecules, are very real, impenetrable things ; though they are
ultra-sensible, transcending our sensibilities, a finite, calculable
number of them can be weighed on platform scales, and in the
form of a cannon-ball, for example, do very effective work, — being
as potent on the physical plane as a real ghost is on its own
plane, where it weighs as much less than an atom as a dynasphere
weighs less than a molecule.

What now of the so-called imponderable elejnents ?

All the foregoing kinds of things are coarse, heavy, gritty, slow
and dull in comparison with the kind of stuff called luminiferous
ether, the vibrations of which make the light we see with — though
nobody has ever seen light itself in this world.

Light is a wave-motion or undulation of this ether, proceeding
by radiation from some luminous body, as the sun or a candle.
The ether itself does not move along, but the vidiwt-motion travels
along the ether, at the rate of 192,000 miles a second — about a
million times faster than sound goes ; for sound-waves of ordinary
air only get along 1,100 feet or \ ol a mile in a second.

The waves of light all progress at the same speed, 192,000 miles
a second, but different colors of light are due to the difference in
the lengths of the waves of differently colored light, and their num-
ber of oscillations in a given time. Thus, taking the three colors
— blue, yellow, and red — there are in an inch 51,000 blue waves,

APPENDIX.

77

44,000 yellow waves, and 39,000 red waves ; these numbers of
course expressing the absolute as well as relative lengths of the
waves of these colors respectively. But how fast is the motion in
these waves? What number of oscillations or vibrations in a
second of time?

Red oscillates 477,000,000,000,000 times a second.

Yellow oscillates 535,000,000,000,000 times a second.

Blue oscillates 622,000,000,000,000 times a second.

Violet is still quicker in its oscillations, giving 699 with the same
twelve ciphers after it.

Now we see that the velocity increases towards the violet end of
the spectrum. Then light gets too fast for our slow eyes,^ and all
is dark beyond. What, indeed, is beyond? That is " The light that
shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not."

Neither matter nor motion can be conceived to stop there. But
what kind of motion in what kind of matter goes on ?

Sound is a million times slower than light. How many million
times is the laggard light slower than thought?

1 The microscope has been brought to such a pitch of perfection that the difficulty of
getting any further in seeing through it is no mechanical obstacle or defect of construction,
but simply the coarseness of light itself and the dulness of our eyes. The instrument is
capable of much better work, but " the light is too coarse," as microscopists often com-
plain, to show its finest effects. Of course, when an object is so magnified in the micro-
scope that we can see marks on it that are no larger than light-waves, light becomes itself
an obscuration or screen from further vision. An eye sharp enough to see and a micro-
scope strong enough to show objects as fine as the vibrations of the ether that is beyond
the visible violet end of the spectrum, would then comprehend the light that shineth
in the darkness, and be bathed in a splendor the glory of whose radiance is to us now
inconceivable.

78

APPENDIX.

But to return to our science. Heat is a kind of motion, and
nothing else. Heat proceeds, or is conveyed, in three ways.
When heat is conveyed by convection, as it is called, it affects
masses directly, as you may ascertain by putting your finger in a
candle. When it is conveyed by conduction, as from one end of a
bar of iron to the other, it affects molecules. When it is conveyed
by radiation, it affects atoms.

Light is much finer and swifter; it only goes by radiation, and
only affects atoms. Thus, a ray of blue light communicates
699,000,000,000,000 impulses or shocks to atoms in a second of
time. What kind of a shaking up is this ?

It has been supposed, with good reason, that atoms rotate on
their axes, like tops spinning, and also revolve in eUiptical orbits,
like the earth around the sun. And these orbital revolutions of
atoms are supposed to be affected by light, in a way that makes
them faithful transcripts or exact reflections of what is called the
"amplitude " of light- waves. The brilliancy of light depends upon
this amplitude. Lights vary in brilliancy 40,000,000,000 times,
representing a difference in amplitude of their waves of 200,000
times. Hydrogen flame has a spectrum, and the fixed red, green,
blue, and violet lines of its spectrum show distinct "periodicities,"
or orbits of the hydrogen atoms, of from 456 million million to 729
million million revolutions in a second of time.

All this atomic cosmos goes on in certain spaces smaller than
molecules, and of molecules there are one hundred thousand
million million million in a cubic inch !

How far off are the stars, and how far apart are they then ?

APPENDIX.

79

The Sun is about 92|- million miles from the Earth ; ^ light comes
that journey in eight minutes. The nearest fixed star is Sirius.
The " amplitude " or brilliancy of the light of Sirius is i^i^ that
of the sun-light, and it takes twenty years for the light from
Sirius to get here. Some stars are a thousand times farther off.
If some event on Sirius could be seen, it would have happened
twenty years ago by the time we saw it.

But it is as easy to think of Sirius as of these words. Thought
goes as instantaneously to that star as the eye falls upon this
paper.

Neither time nor space is an objective reality, or even what it
seems to the senses to be. Time is the eternal continuity of mind
with itself. Space is the boundless contiguity of mind with
matter.

Can mind come in contact with matter ? How closely can mind
apply itself to matter? How small are the spaces occupied by
matter that we can perceive by our bodily senses ?

A man tried once to see how many parallel lines he could cut in
an inch of glass» Nobert found he could mechanically engrave on
glass 112,000 visible lines in an inch ; for his " 19th band" can be
thrown upon a screen and every line be distinctly displayed to a
roomful of people. Indeed, his mechanical contrivance went be-
yond his sight ; for he managed to cut 224,000 lines to an inch with
almost mathematical accuracy, though they remained invisible.
The lines of his 19th band were only about half as thick as the

1 A certain calculation in the possession of the writer, made from data derived from the
Great Pyramid of Gizeh, makes the distance 92,285,568 miles.

8o

APPENDIX.

distance apart of two flat glasses pressed together with a pressure
of looo pounds to the square inch. They were about 'o of an
inch thick, and were distant from each other about ^ the length
of a wave of violet light, or \ that of a red wave. One to three of
Nobert's visible lines could be laid in the trough of a hght-wave.

A soap-bubble can be blown up till the film of water is about
ige^oro of an inch thick, which is less than \ the length of a wave of
red light ; so that 4 or 5 thicknesses of such a soajD-bubble could be
wedged together into the trough or hollow of a light-wave.

It takes ^2,600 foot-pounds, or 4 tons lifted 100 feet high, to
tear a pound of water into steam. We can estimate the weight of
a square inch of soap-bubble, and so the force required to wrench
its molecules asunder. A soap-bubble reduced nearly to 500,000,000 of
an inch in thickness would probably be a film or sheet of molecules
about one molecule thick, and to tear this would be equivalent to
volatilizing it into steam. At this degree of thinness, 500,000,000 of an
inch, the film is ■^^^ as thick as a wave of light is long. But the
film before the bubble bursts is certainly less than 1,00^,000 of an inch
thick ; a square inch of this would only weigh of a grain ; and
the eye can see 135 of a linear inch, or of a square inch. So,
while we admire the splendid Iris of the bubble, we can look at a
quantity of water weighing 10,0^,000 of a grain.

Some souls can also see the rainbow of this bubble of the
world.

If then mind cannot quite come in contact with matter, — can
matter come in contact with matter? Can any thing touch any
other thing ? It is impossible. The atomic abyss is as unfathom-

APPENDIX.

8i

able as the interstellar void is immeasurable. At a pressure of
I, GOO pounds to the square inch, two plates of glass pressed flat to
each other are still ^^^^o of an inch apart — very far from touching
with absolute contact, even in bulk or mass. Strike a blow with
a sledge-hammer on a steel crowbar. If the bar is a foot long it
takes of a second for the blow to get to the other end of it; if
7 miles long, the blow would be 2 seconds in travelling from one
end to the other. Assuming the nearness of the hammer to the
head of the bar at the instant of the blow to be even 1,000,000 of an
inch : the time required for the blow to traverse this distance
is 2i6,ooo!ooo,ooo of a second; plenty long enough, nevertheless, for
atoms of steel to perform 20,000 to 30,000 of their revolutions
or oscillations.

In fact, the hammer never touches the bar at all. But it strikes
the blow, all the same. What is the medium of the transfer of
the "force'''' of the blow from the hajnmer to the bar? What is
the " dynasphere'''' of a hammer?

Matter must act on matter either at some distance, or at no dis-
tance. It cannot act at no distance, for it never gets there ; there-
fore, it must act at some distance ; therefore, it only acts where it
is not.

This is the celebrated Paradox of Zeno.

The fact is, matter never acts on matter, either where it is, or
where it is not. In the above illustration, the sledge-hammer does
not drive the crowbar ; the man who slings the hammer does that.

It is not even his arm that does it. Nor his head, nor any
thing that is in his head. The man himself does it.

82

APPENDIX.

" Can matter think ? " Yes, if a hammer can hit a crowbar.
But if it has no mind to do this, it has to get a man with a mind
to strike the blow.

No explanation is final till there is nothing left to be explained —
till it is pushed to the inexplicable, and no explanation satisfies the
mind unless it rests upon the incomprehensible.

University Press : John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.

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