ty
of such a conception as this last, except in the symbolism of poetry,
is extreme, and it is unthinkable by any educated person; but its
improbability depends upon other considerations than biologic ones, and
it is as repugnant to an enlightened Theology as to any other science.

The mode in which biological speculation as to the probable development
of living out of dead matter, and the general relation of protoplasm to
physics and chemistry, can be surmised or provisionally granted,
without thereby concurring in any destructive criticism of other facts
and experiences, is explained in Chapter X. on "Life," further on: and
there I emphasise my agreement with parts of the speculative
contentions of Professor Haeckel on the positive side.

_Soul and Body._

Let us consider what are the facts scientifically known concerning the
interaction between mind and matter. Fundamentally they amount to this:
that a complex piece of matter, called the brain, is the organ or
instrument of mind and consciousness; that if it be stimulated mental
activity results; that if it be injured or destroyed no manifestation
of mental activity is possible. Moreover, it is assumed, and need not
be doubted, that a portion of brain substance is consumed, oxidised let
us say, in every act of mentation: using that term in the vaguest and
most general sense, and including in it unconscious as well as
conscious operations.

Suppose we grant all this, what then? We have granted that brain is the
means whereby mind is made manifest on this material plane, it is the
instrument through which alone we know it, but we have not granted that
mind is _limited_ to its material manifestation; nor can we maintain
that without matter the things we call mind, intelligence, consciousness,
have no sort of existence. Mind may be incorporate or incarnate in
matter, but it may also transcend it; it is through the region of ideas
and the intervention of mind that we have become aware of the existence
of matter. It is injudicious to discard our primary and fundamental
_awareness_ for what is after all an instinctive inference or
interpretation of certain sensations.

The realities underlying those sensations are only known to us by
inference, but they have an independent existence: in their inmost
nature they may be quite other than what they seem, and are in no way
dependent upon our perception of them. So, also, our actual personality
may be something considerab