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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 CHAPTER VI
INTERACTION OF MIND AND MATTER

"Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus

Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet."
Æ
neid, vi. 726

L IFE and mind and consciousness do not belong to the material

region; whatever they are in themselves, they are manifestly
something quite distinct from matter and energy, and yet they utilise
the material and dominate it.
Matter is arranged and moved by means of energy, but often at the
behest of life and mind. Mind does not itself exert force, nor does it
enter into the scheme of physics, and yet it indirectly brings about
results which otherwise would not have happened. It definitely
causes movements and arrangements or constructions of a purposed
character. A bird grows a feather, and a bird builds a nest: I doubt if
there is less design in the one case than in the other. How life
achieves the guidance, how even it accomplishes the movements, is
a mystery, but that it does accomplish them is a commonplace of
observation. From the motion of a finger to the construction of an
aeroplane, there is but a succession of steps. From the growth of a
weed to the flight of an eagle,—from a yeast granule at one end, to
the human body at the other,—the organising power of life over
matter is conspicuous.
Who can doubt the supremacy of the spiritual over the material? It is
a fact which, illustrated by trivial instances, may be pressed to the
most portentous consequences.
If interaction between mind and matter really occurs, and if both are
persistent and enduring entities, there is no limit to the possibilities
under which such interaction may occur—no limit which can be laid
down beforehand—we must be guided and instructed solely by
experience.
Whether the results produced are styled miraculous or not, depends
on our knowledge,—our knowledge of all the powers latent in
nature, and a knowledge of all the intelligences which exist. A
savage on his first encounter with white men must have come into
contact with what to him was supernatural. A letter, a gun, even
artificial teeth, have all aroused superstition; while a telegram must
be obviously miraculous, to anyone intelligent enough to perceive
the wonder. A colony of bees, unused to the ministrations or
interference of man, might puzzle itself over the provision made for
its habitation and activities, if it had intelligence enough to ponder
the matter. So human beings, if they are open-minded and
developed enough to contemplate all the happenings in which they
are concerned, have been led to recognise guidance; and they have
responded to the perception by the worshipful attitude of religion. In
other words, they have essentially recognised the existence of a
Power transcending ordinary nature—a Power that may properly be
called supernatural.

Meaning of the Term Body

Our experience of bodies here and now is that they are composed of
material particles derived from the earth, whether they be bodies
animated by vegetable or by animal forms of life. But I take it that
the real meaning of the term 'body' is a means of manifestation,—
perhaps a physical mode of manifestation adopted by something
which without such instrument or organ would be in a different and
elusive category. Why should we say that bodies must be made of
matter? Surely only because we know of nothing else of which they
could be made; but that lack of knowledge is not very efficient as an
argument. True, if they were made of anything else they would not
be apparent to us now, with our particular evolutionally-derived
sense organs; for these only inform us about matter and its
properties. Constructions built of Ether would have no chance of
appealing to our senses, they would not be apparent to us; they
would therefore not be what we ordinarily call bodies; at any rate
they would not be material bodies. In order to become apparent to
us, a psychical or vital entity must enter the material realm, and
either clothe itself with, or temporarily assimilate, material particles.
It may be that etherial bodies do not exist; the burden of proof rests
upon those who conceive of their possible existence; but we are
bound to admit that even if they did exist, they would make no
impression on our senses. Hence if there are any intelligences in
another order of existence interlocked with ours, and if they can in
any sense be supposed to have bodies at all, those bodies must be
made either of Ether or of something equally intangible to us in our
present condition.[36]
Yet, though intangible and elusive, we have reason to know that
Ether is substantial enough,—far more substantial indeed than
matter, which turns out to be a rare and filmy insertion in, or
modification of, the Ether of Space; and a different set of sense
organs might make the Ether eclipse matter in availability and
usefulness. In my book The Ether of Space this thesis is elaborated
from a purely physical point of view.
I wish, however, to make no assertion concerning the possible
psychical use of the Ether of Space. Anything of that kind must be
speculative; the only bodies we now know of in actual fact are
material bodies, and we must be guided by facts. Yet we must not
shut the door prematurely on other possibilities; and we can
remember that inspired writers have sometimes contemplated what
they term a spiritual body.

Permanence of Body
But why should anyone suppose a body of some kind always
necessary? Why should they assume a perpetual sort of dualism
about existence? The reason is that we have no knowledge of any
other form of animate existence; and it may be claimed as legitimate
to assume that the association between life and matter here on the
planet has a real and vital significance, that without such an episode
of earth life we should be less than we are, and that the relation is
typical of something real and permanent.
"Such use may lie in blood and breath."—Tennyson
Why matter should be thus useful to spirit and even to life it is not
easy to say. It may be that by the interaction of two things better
and newer results can always be obtained than was possible for one
alone. There are analogies enough for that. Do we not find that
genius seems to require the obstruction or the aid of matter for its
full development? The artist must enjoy being able to compel
refractory material to express his meaning. Didactic writings are apt
to emphasise the obstructiveness of matter; but that may be
because its usefulness seems self-evident. Our limbs, and senses,
and bodily faculties generally, are surely of momentous service;
microscopes and telescopes and laboratory instruments, and
machinery generally, are only extensions of them. Tools to the man
who can use them:—orchestra to the musician, lathe or theodolite to
the engineer, books and records to the historian, even though not
much more than pen and paper is needed by the poet or the
mathematician.
But our bodily organs are much more than any artificial tools can be,
they are part of our very being. The body is part of the constitution
of man. We are not spirit or soul alone,—though it is sometimes
necessary to emphasise the fact that we are soul at all,—we are in
truth soul and body together. And so I think we shall always be;
though our bodies need not always be composed of earthly particles.
Matter is the accidental part: there is an essential and more
permanent part, and the permanent part must survive.
This is the strength, as I have said elsewhere and will not now at
any length repeat, of the sacramental claims and practices of
religion. Forms and customs which appeal to the body are a
legitimate part of the whole; and while some natures derive most
benefit from the exclusively psychical and spiritual essence, others
probably do well to prevent the more sensuous and more puzzling
concomitants from falling into disuse.

Footnotes
[36] That a great poet should have represented the meeting
between the still incarnate Æneas and his discarnate father
Anchises as a bodily disappointment, is consistent:—

"Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum;

Ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago,
Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno."
Æneid, vi. 700

It may be said that what is intangible ought to be invisible;

but that does not follow. The Ether is a medium for vision,
not for touch. Ether and Ether may interact, just as matter
and matter interact; but interaction between Ether and
matter is peculiarly elusive.
 CHAPTER VII
'RESURRECTION OF THE BODY'

"Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never."
E
dwin Arnold

I Nexistence
the whole unknown drama of the soul the episode of bodily
must have profound significance. Matter cannot only be
obstructive, even usefully obstructive,—by which is meant the kind
of obstruction which stimulates to effort and trains for power, like
the hurdles in an obstacle race,—it must be auxiliary too. Whatever
may be the case with external matter, the body itself is certainly an
auxiliary, so long as it is in health and strength; and it gives
opportunity for the development of the soul in new and unexpected
ways—ways in which but for earth life its practice would be deficient.
This it is which makes calamity of too short a life.
But let us not be over-despondent about the tragedy of the present.
It may be that the concentrated training and courageous facing of
fate which in most cases must have accompanied voluntary entry
into a dangerous war, compensates in intensity what it lacks in
duration, and that the benefit of bodily terrestrial life is not so much
lost by violent death of that kind as might at first appear. Yet even
with some such assurance, the spectacle of thousands of youths in
full vigour and joy of life having their earthly future violently
wrenched from them, amid scenes of grim horror and nerve-
wracking noise and confusion, is one which cannot and ought not to
be regarded with equanimity. It is a bad and unnatural truncation of
an important part of each individual career, a part which might have
done much to develop faculties and enlarge experience.
Meanwhile, the very fact that we lament so sincerely this dire and
man-caused fate serves to illustrate the view we inevitably take that
the earth-body is not only a means of manifestation but is a real
servant of the soul,—that flesh can in some sense help spirit as spirit
can undoubtedly help flesh,—and that while its very weaknesses are
serviceable and stimulating, its strength is exhilarating and superb.
The faculties and powers developed in the animal kingdom during all
the millions of years of evolution, and now inherited for better for
worse by man, are not to be despised. Those therefore who are able
to think that some of the essential elements or attributes of the body
are carried forward into a higher life—quite irrespective of the
manifestly discarded material particles which never were important
to the body, for they were always in perpetual flux as individual
molecules—those, I say, who think that the value derived and
acquired through the body survives, and becomes a permanent
possession of the soul, may well feel that they can employ the
mediæval phrase "resurrection of the body" to express their
perception. They may feel that it is a truth which needs emphasising
all the more from its lack of obviousness. These old phrases,
consecrated by long usage, and familiar to all the saints, though
their early and superficial meaning is evidently superseded, may be
found to have an inner and spiritual significance which when once
grasped should be kept in memory, and brought before attention,
and sustained against challenge: in no case should they be lightly or
hastily discarded.
It seems not altogether fanciful to trace some similarity or analogy,
between the ideas about inheritance usually associated with the
name of Weismann, and the inheritance or conveyance of bodily
attributes, or of powers acquired through the body, into the future
life of the soul.
When considering whether anything, or what, is likely to be
permanent, the answer turns upon whether or not the soul has been
affected. Mere bodily accidents of course are temporary; loss of an
arm or an eye is no more carried on as a permanent disfigurement
than it is transmissible to offspring. But, apart from accidents which
may happen to the body, there are some evil things—rendered
accessible by and definitely associated with the body—which assault
and hurt the soul. And the effect of these is transmissible, and may
become permanent. Habits which write their mark on the
countenance—whether the writing be good or bad—are not likely to
take effect on the body alone. And in this sense also future existence
may be either glorified or stained, for a time, by persistence of
bodily traits,—by this kind of "resurrection of the body."
Furthermore it is found that although bodily marks, scars and
wounds, are clearly not of soul-compelling and permanent character,
yet for purposes of identification, and when re-entering the physical
atmosphere for the purpose of communication with friends, these
temporary marks are re-assumed; just as the general appearance at
the remembered age, and details connected with clothes and little
unessential tricks of manner, may—in some unknown sense—be
assumed too.
And it is to this category that I would attribute the curious interest
still felt in old personal possessions. They are attended to and
recalled, not for what by a shopman is called their 'value,' but
because they furnish useful and welcome evidence of identity; they
are like the pièces de conviction brought up at a trial, they bear
silent witness to remembered fact. And in so far as the disposal or
treatment of them by survivors is evidence of the regard in which
their late owner was held, it is unlikely that they should have
suddenly become matters of complete indifference. Nothing human,
in the sense of affecting the human spirit, can be considered foreign
to a friendly and sympathetic soul, even though his new
preoccupations and industries and main activities are of a different
order. It appears as if, for the few moments of renewed earthly
intercourse, the newer surroundings shrink for a time into the
background. They are remembered, but not vividly. Indeed it seems
difficult to live in both worlds at once, especially after the life-long
practice here of living almost exclusively in one. Those whose
existence here was coloured or ennobled by wider knowledge and
higher aims seem likely to have the best chance of conveying
instructive information across the boundary; though their developed
powers may be of such still higher value, that only from a sense of
duty or in a missionary spirit can they be expected to absent them
from felicity while in order to help the brethren.
Quotation of a passage from Plotinus seems here permissible:—
"Souls which once were in men, when they leave the body, need not
cease from benefiting mankind. Some indeed, in addition to other
services, give occult messages (oracular replies), thus proving by
their own case that other souls also survive" (Enn. IV. vii. 15).

As a digression of some importance, I venture to say that claims of

thoughtless and pertinacious people upon the charitable and
eminent, even here, are often excessive: it is to be hoped that such
claims become less troublesome and less effective hereafter; but it is
a hope without much foundation. Remonstrances are useless,
however, for only the more thoughtful and those most deserving of
help are likely to attend to remonstrances. Nevertheless—useless or
not—it behoves one to make them. We are indeed taught that in
exceptional cases there may ultimately supervene such an
extraordinary elevation of soul that no trouble is too great, and no
appeal is unheard. But still, even in the Loftiest case of all, the
episode of having passed through a human body contributes to the
power of sympathising with and aiding ordinary humanity.
 CHAPTER VIII
MIND AND BRAIN

"For nothing is that errs from law."—Tennyson

I tundoubtedly
is sometimes thought that memory is located in the brain; and
there must be some physiological process at work in
the brain when any incident of memory is recalled and either uttered
or written. But it does not at all follow that memory itself is located
in the brain; though there must be some easier channel, or some
already prepared path, which enables an idea to be translated from
the general mental reservoir into consciousness, with clarity and
power sufficient to stimulate the necessary nerves and muscles into
a condition adequate for reproduction.
Sometimes in order to remember a thing, one writes it in a note-
book; and the memory may be said to be in the note-book about as
accurately as it may be said to be in the brain. A physical process
has put it in the note-book; there is a physical configuration
persisting there; and when a sort of reverse physical process is
repeated, it can be got back into consciousness by simply what we
call 'looking' at the book and reading. But surely the real memory is
in the mind all the time, and the deposit in the note-book is a mere
detent for calling it out or for making it easy of recovery. In order to
communicate any information we must focus attention on it; and
whether we focus attention on a part of the brain or on a page of a
note-book matters very little; the attention itself is a mental process,
not a physiological one, though it has a physiological concomitant.
This is an important matter, the keystone in fact of our problem
about the connexion between mind and matter, and I propose to
amplify its treatment further; for this is an unavoidably controversial
portion of the book.

The Seat of Memory

I am familiar with all the usual analogies drawn between organic
habit and memory on the one hand, and the more ready repetition
of physical processes by inorganic material on the other. Imperfectly
elastic springs, for instance, which show reminiscences of previous
bendings or twistings by their subsequent unwindings; and cogs
which wear into smooth running by repetition; are examples of this
kind. A violin which by long practice becomes more musical in tone,
is another; or a path which by being often traversed becomes easier
to the feet. A flower-bed recently altered in shape, by being partly
grassed over, is liable to exhibit its former outline by aid of bulbs and
other half-forgotten growths which come up through the grass in the
old pattern.
This last is a striking example of apparent memory, not indeed in the
inorganic but in the unconscious world; where indeed it is prevalent,
for every one must recognise the memory of animals—there can be
no doubt of that. And it would seem that a kind of race-memory
must be invoked to account for many surprising cases of instinct; of
which the building of specific birds' nests, and the accurate pecking
of a newly-hatched chicken, are among the stock instances. No
experience can be lodged in the brain of the newly-hatched!
That some sort of stored facility should exist in the adult brain, is in
no way surprising; and that there is some physical or physiological
concomitant of actual remembrance is plain; but that is a very
different thing from asserting that memory itself, or any kind of
consciousness, is located in the brain; though truly without the aid
of the brain it is, as far as this planet is concerned, latent and
inaccessible.
Plotinus puts the matter in an interesting but perhaps rather too
extreme form:—
 "As to memory, the body is an impediment ... the unstable and
fluctuating nature of the body makes for oblivion not for
memory. Body is a veritable River of Lethe. Memory belongs to
the soul" (Enn. IV. iii. 26).

The actual reproduction or remembrance of a fact—the

demonstration or realisation of memory—undoubtedly depends on
brain and muscle mechanism; but memory itself turns out to be
essentially mental, and is found to exist apart from the bodily
mechanism which helped originally to receive and store the
impression. And though without that same or some equivalent
mechanism we cannot get at it, so that it cannot be displayed to
others, yet in my experience it turns out not to be absolutely
necessary to use actually the same instrument for its reproduction as
was responsible for its deposition: though undoubtedly to use the
same is easier and helpful. In the early Edison phonographs the
same instrument had to be used for both reception and
reproduction; but now a record can readily be transferred from one
instrument to another. This may be regarded as a rough mechanical
analogy to the telepathic or telergic process whereby a psychic
reservoir of memory can be partially tapped through another
organism.
But, apart from any consideration of what may be regarded as
doubtful or uncertain, there are some facts about the relation of
brain to consciousness, which, though universally admitted, are
frequently misinterpreted. Injure the brain, and consciousness is
lost. 'Lost' is the right word—not 'destroyed.' Repair the lesion, and
consciousness may be restored, i.e. normal manifestation of
consciousness can once more occur. It is the display of
consciousness, in all such cases, that we mean when we speak of
the effect of brain injury; the utilisation of bodily organs is necessary
for its exhibition. If the bodily organs do not exist, or are too
damaged, no normal manifestation is possible. That is the fact which
may be misinterpreted.
In general we may say, with fair security, that no receptivity to
physical phenomena exists save through sense-organ, nerve, and
brain; nor any initiation of physical phenomena, save through brain,
nerve, and muscle. Apart from physical phenomena consciousness is
isolated and inaccessible: we have no right to say that it is non-
existent. In ordinary usage it is not customary or necessary to be
always harping on this completer aspect of things: it is only
necessary when misunderstanding has arisen from uniformly
inaccurate, or rather unguarded, modes of expression.
In an excellent lecture by Dr. Mott on "The Effects of High Explosives
upon the Central Nervous System," I find this sentence:—
"It is known that a continuous supply of oxygen is essential for
consciousness."
What is intended is clear enough, but analysed strictly this assertion
goes far beyond what is known. We do not really know that oxygen,
or any form of matter, has anything to do with consciousness: all
that we know, and all that Dr. Mott really means to say, I presume, is
that without a supply of oxygen consciousness gives no physical
sign.
Partial interruptions of physical manifestations of consciousness well
illustrate this: as, for instance, when speech-centres of the brain
alone are affected. If in such case we had to depend on mouth-
muscle alone we should say that consciousness had departed, and
might even think that it was non-existent; but the arm-muscle may
remain under brain control, and by intelligent writing can show that
consciousness is there all the time, and that it is only inhibited from
one of the specially easy modes of manifestation. In some cases the
inhibition may be complete,—from such cases we do not learn
much; but when it is only partial we learn a good deal.
I quote again from Dr. Mott, omitting for brevity the detailed
description of certain surgical war-cases, under his care, which
precedes the following explanatory interjection and summary:—
 "Why should these men, whose silent thoughts are perfect, be
unable to speak? They comprehend all that is said to them
unless they are deaf; but it is quite clear that [even] in these
cases their internal language is unaffected, for they are able to
express their thoughts and judgments perfectly well by writing,
even if they are deaf. The mutism is therefore not due to an
intellectual defect, nor is it due to volitional inhibition of
language in silent thought. Hearing, the primary incitation to
vocalisation and speech, is usually unaffected, yet they are
unable to speak; they cannot even whisper, cough, whistle, or
laugh aloud. Many who are unable to speak voluntarily yet call
out in their dreams expressions they have used in trench
warfare and battle. Sometimes this is followed by return of
speech, but more often not. One man continually shouted out in
his sleep, but he did not recover voluntary speech or power of
phonation till eight months after admission to the hospital for
shell-shock."

Very well, all this interesting experience serves among other things
to illustrate our simple but occasionally overlooked thesis. For it is
through physical phenomena that normally we apprehend, here and
now; and it is by aid of physical phenomena that we convey to
others our wishes, our impressions, our ideas, and our memories.
Dislocate the physical from the psychical, and communication
ceases. Restore the connexion, in however imperfect a form, and
once more incipient communication may become possible again.
That is the rationale of the process of human intercourse. Do we
understand it? No. Do we understand even how our own mind
operates on our own body? No. We know for a fact that it does.
Do we understand how a mind can with difficulty and imperfectly
operate another body submitted to its temporary guidance and
control? No. Do we know for a fact that it does? Aye, that is the
question—a question of evidence. I myself answer the question
affirmatively; not on theoretical grounds—far from that—but on a
basis of straightforward experience. Others, if they allow themselves
to take the trouble to get the experience, will come to the same
conclusion.
Will they do so best by allowing their own bodies or brains to be
utilised? No, that seems not even the best, and certainly not the only
way. It may not, for the majority of people, be a possible way. The
sensitive or medium who serves us, by putting his or her bodily
mechanism at our disposal, is not likely to be best informed
concerning the nature of the process. Mediums have perhaps but
little conscious information to give us concerning their powers; we
must learn from what they do, not from what they say. The outside
observer, the experimenter, whose senses are alert all the time and
who continues fully conscious without special receptivity or any
peculiar power of his own, is in a better position to note and judge
what is happening,—at least from the normal and scientific point of
view. Let us be as cautious and critical, aye and as sceptical as we
like, but let us also be patient and persevering and fair; do not let us
start with a preconceived notion of what is possible and what is
impossible in this almost unexplored universe; let us only be willing
to learn and be guided by facts, not by dogmas; and gradually the
truth will permeate our understanding and make for itself a place in
our minds as secure as in any other branch of observational science.
 CHAPTER IX
LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS

T he limitation of scope which eminent Professors of a certain

school of modern science have laid down for themselves is
forcibly expressed by one of the ablest of their champions thus:—

"No sane man has ever pretended, since science became a

definite body of doctrine, that we know or ever can hope to
know or conceive the possibility of knowing whence the
mechanism has come, why it is there, whither it is going, or
what may be beyond and beside it which our senses are
incapable of appreciating. These things are not 'explained' by
science and never can be."—Sir E. Ray Lankester.

I should myself hesitate to promulgate such a markedly non-

possumus and ignorabimus statement concerning the scope of
physical science, even as narrowly and popularly understood; but it
illuminates the position taken up by those savants who are
commonly known as Materialists, and explains their expressed
though non-personal hostility to other scientific men who seek to
exceed the boundaries laid down, and investigate things beyond the
immediate range of the senses.
Eliminating the future tense from the statement, however, I can
agree with it. The instrument of translation from the mental to the
physical, and back from the physical to the mental, is undoubtedly
the brain, but as to how the translation is accomplished, I venture to
say, we have not the inkling of an idea. Nevertheless, hints which
may gradually lead towards a partial understanding of psycho-
physical processes may be gained by study of exceptional cases: for
such study is often more instructive than continued scrutiny of the
merely normal.
The fact of human consciousness, though it raises the problem to a
high degree of conspicuousness, by no means exhausts the
difficulty; for it is one which faces us in connexion with every form of
life. The association of life with matter, and of mind with life, are
problems of similar order, and a glimmering of understanding of the
one may be expected to throw light upon the other. But until we
know more of the method by which the simplest and most familiar
psycho-physical interaction occurs—until we know enough to see
how the gulf between two apparently different Modes of Being is
bridged—it is safest to observe and accumulate facts, and to be very
chary of making more than the most tentative and cautious of
working hypotheses. For to frame even a tentative hypothesis, of
any helpful kind, may require some clue which as yet we do not
possess.
I have been struck by the position taken by Dr. Chalmers Mitchell in
his notable small book Evolution and the War, the early chapters of
which, on Germany of the past and present, I would like
unreservedly to commend to the reader. Indeed, commendation of a
friendly and non-patronising kind may well extend to the whole
book, although it must be admitted that here and there mere
exposition of Darwinism is suspended, and difficult and debatable
questions are touched upon.
On these questions I would not like to be understood as expressing
a hasty opinion, either against or for the views of the author. The
points at issue between us are more or less fine-drawn, and cannot
be dealt with parenthetically; nor do I ever propose to deal with
them in a controversial manner. The author, as a biologist of fame, is
more than entitled to such expression of his own views as he has
cared to give. I quote with admiration, not necessarily with
agreement, a few passages from the part dealing with the relation
between mind and matter, and especially with the wide and
revolutionary difference between man and animal caused by either
the evolution or the incoming of free and conscious Choice.
He will not allow, with Bergson and others, that the roots of
consciousness, in its lower grades, go deep down into the animal,
and even perhaps into the vegetable, kingdom; he has no patience
with those who associate elementary consciousness and freedom
and indeterminateness not merely with human life but with all life,
and who detect rudiments of purpose and intelligence in the
protozoa. Nor, on the other hand, does he approve the dogmatic
teaching of the 'ultra-scientific' school, which, being obsessed by the
idea of man's animal origin, interprets human nature solely in terms
of protoplasm. He opposes the possibility of this by saying:—
"However fruitful and interesting it may be to remember that we are
rooted deep in the natal mud, our possession of consciousness and
the sense of freedom is a vital and overmastering distinction."
On the more interesting of the above-mentioned alternatives Dr.
Chalmers Mitchell expresses himself thus:—
"The Bergsonian interpretation does nothing to make consciousness
and freedom more intelligible; and by extending them from man, in
whom we know them to exist, to animals, in which their presence is
at best an inference, it not only robs them of definiteness and
reality, but it blurs the real distinction between men and animals,
and evades the most difficult problem of science and philosophy. The
facts are more truly represented by such phraseology as that
animals are instinctive, man is intelligent, animals are irresponsible,
man is responsible, animals are automata, man is free; or if you like,
that God gave animals a beautiful body, man a rational soul...."
And soon afterwards he continues:—
"Not 'envisaging itself,' not being at once actor, spectator, and critic,
'living in the flashing moment,' not seeing the past and the present
and the future separately, this is the highest at which we can put the
consciousness of animals, and herein lies the distinction between
man and the animals which makes the overwhelming difference.
"Must we then suppose, with Russel Wallace, that somewhere on the
upward path from the tropical forests to the groves of Paradise, a
soul was interpolated from an outside source into the gorilla-like
ancestry of man? I do not think so, although I not only admit but
assert that such a view gives a more accurate statement of fact than
does either of the fashionable doctrines that I have discussed. I
believe with Darwin, that as the body of man has been evolved from
the body of animals, so the intellectual, emotional, and moral
faculties of man have been evolved from the qualities of animals. I
help myself towards the comprehension of the process by reflecting
on two phenomena of observation [which he proceeds to cite]. I
help myself, and perchance may help others; no more; could I speak
dogmatically on what is the central mystery of all science and all
philosophy and all thought, my words would roll with the thunder of
Sinai."
Let it not be supposed for a moment that this distinguished biologist
is in agreement with me on many matters dealt with in the present
book. If he were, he would, I believe, achieve a more admirable and
eloquent work than is consistent with the technically 'apologetic'
tone which, in the present state of the scientific atmosphere, it
behoves me to take. To guard against unwelcome misrepresentation
of his views, and yet at the same time to indicate their force, I will
make one more quotation:—

"Writing as a hard-shell Darwinian evolutionist, a lover of the

scalpel and microscope, and of patient, empirical observation,
as one who dislikes all forms of supernaturalism, and who does
not shrink from the implications even of the phrase that thought
is a secretion of the brain as bile is a secretion of the liver, I
assert as a biological fact that the moral law is as real and as
external to man as the starry vault. It has no secure seat in any
single man or in any single nation. It is the work of the blood
and tears of long generations of men. It is not, in man, inborn
or innate, but is enshrined in his traditions, in his customs, in his
literature and his religion. Its creation and sustenance are the
 crowning glory of man, and his consciousness of it puts him in a
high place above the animal world. Men live and die; nations
rise and fall, but the struggle of individual lives and of individual
nations must be measured not by their immediate needs, but as
they tend to the debasement or perfection of man's great
achievement."

My own view, which in such matters I only put forth with diffidence
and brevity, is more in favour of Continuity. I do not trace so
catastrophic a break between man and animals, nor between animal
and vegetable, perhaps not even between organised and
unorganised forms of matter, as does Dr. Chalmers Mitchell.
I would venture to extend the range of the term 'soul' down to a
very large denominator,—to cases in which the magnitude of the
fraction becomes excessively minute,—and tentatively admit to the
possibility of survival, though not individual survival, every form of
life. As to Individuality and Personality—they can only survive where
they already exist; when they really exist they persist; but bare
survival, as an alternative to improbable extinction, may be
widespread.
Matter forms an instrument, a means of manifestation, but it need
not be the only one possible. We have utilised matter to build up this
beautiful bodily mechanism, but, when that is done with, the
constructive ability remains; and it can be expected to exercise its
organising powers in other than material environment. If this
hypothesis be true at all (and admittedly I am now making
hypothesis) it must be true of all forms of life; for what the process
of evolution has accomplished here may be accomplished elsewhere,
under conditions at present unknown.[37] So I venture to surmise
that the surroundings of non-material existence will be far more
homely and habitual than people in general have been accustomed
to think likely.
And how do I know that the visible material body of anything is all
the body, or all the existence, it possesses? Why should not things
exist also, or have etherial counterparts, in an etherial world?
Perhaps everything has already an etherial counterpart, of which our
senses tell us the material aspect only. I do not know. Such an idea
may be quoted as an absurdity; but if the evidence drives me in that
direction, in that direction I will go, without undue resistance. There
have been those who do not wait to be driven, but who lead; and
the inspired guidance of Plotinus in that direction may secure more
attention, and attract more disciples, when the way is illuminated by
discoverable facts.
Meanwhile facts await discovery.

Passages from Plotinus, it may be remembered, are eloquently

translated by F. W. H. Myers, from the obscure and often
ungrammatical Greek, in Human Personality, vol. ii. pp. 289-
291; and readers of S.P.R. Proceedings, vol. xxii, pp. 108-172,
will remember the development by Mrs. Verall of the [Greek: kai
autos ouranos akumôn] motto prefixed to F. W. H. Myers's post-
humously published poem on Tennyson in Fragments of Prose
and Poetry.

My reference just above to teachings of Plotinus about the kind of

things to be met with in the other world, or the etherial world, or
whatever it may be called, is due to information from Professor J. H.
Muirhead that, roughly speaking, Plotinus teaches that things there
are on the same plan as things here: each thing here having its
counterpart or corresponding existence there, though glorified and
fuller of reality. Not to misrepresent this doctrine, but to illustrate it
as far as can be by a short passage, Professor Muirhead has given
me the following translation from the Enneads:—

"But again let us speak thus: For since we hold that this
universe is framed after the pattern of That, every living thing
must needs first be There; and since Its Being is perfect, all
must be There. Heaven then must There be a living thing nor
void of what are here called stars; indeed such things belong to
heaven. Clearly too the earth which is There is not an empty
 void, but much more full of life, wherein are all creatures that
are here called land animals and plants that are rooted in life.
And sea is There, and all water in ebb and flow and in abiding
life, and all creatures that are in the water. And air is a part of
the all that is There, and creatures of the air in accordance with
the nature and laws of air. For in the Living how should living
things fail? How then can any living thing fail to be There,
seeing that as each of the great parts of nature is, so needs
must be the living things that therein are? As then Heaven is,
and There exists, so are and exist all the creatures that inhabit
it; nor can these fail to be, else would those (on earth?) not
be."
Enn. VI. vii.

The reason why this strange utterance or speculation is reproduced

here is because it seems to some extent to correspond with curious
statements recorded in another part of this book; e.g. in Chapter
XIV, Part II.
I expect that it would be misleading to suppose that the terms used
by Plotinus really signify any difference of locality. It may be nearer
the truth to suppose that when freed from our restricting and only
matter-revealing senses we become aware of much that was and is
'here' all the time, interfused with the existence which we knew;—
forming part indeed of the one and only complete existence, of
which our present normal knowledge is limited to a single aspect.
We might think and speak of many interpenetrating universes, and
yet recognise that ultimately they must be all one. It is not likely that
the Present differs from what we now call the Future except in our
mode of perceiving it.

Footnotes
[37] I wish to emphasise this paragraph, as perhaps an
important one.
 CHAPTER X
ON MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
"In scientific truth there is no finality, and there should therefore be
no dogmatism. When this is forgotten, then science will become
stagnant, and its high-priests will endeavour to strangle new
learning at its birth."—R. A. Gregory, Discovery.

H ow does mind communicate with mind? Our accustomed process

is singularly indirect.
Speech is the initiation of muscular movements, under brain and
nerve guidance, which result in the production of atmospheric
pulsations—alternate condensations and rarefactions—which spread
out in all directions in a way that can be likened superficially to the
spreading of ripples on a pond. In themselves the aerial pulsations
have no psychical connotation, and are as purely mechanical as are
those ripples, though like the indentations on the wax of a
phonograph their sequence is cunningly contrived; and it is in their
sequence that the code lies—a code which anyone who has
struggled with a foreign language knows is difficult to learn. Sound
waves have in some respects a still closer analogy with the etherial
pulsations generated at a wireless-telegraph sending station, which
affect all sensitive receiving instruments within range and convey a
code by their artificially induced sequence.
Hearing is reception of a small modicum of the above aerial
pulsations, by suitable mechanism which enables them to stimulate
ingeniously contrived nerve-endings, and so at length to affect
auditory centres in the brain, and to get translated into the same
kind of consciousness as was responsible for the original utterance.
The whole is done so quickly and easily, by the perfect physiological
mechanism provided, that the indirect and surprising nature of the
process is usually overlooked; as most things are when they have
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