vations, but our reason
tells us that such is the case.
Where, in such a world as this, is there room for mind, and what can we
mean by mind? Democritus finds a place for mind by conceiving it to
consist of fine, smooth, round atoms, which are the same as the atoms
which constitute fire. These are distributed through the whole body,
and lie among the other atoms which compose it. They are inhaled with
and exhaled into the outer air. While they are in the body their
functions are different according as they are located in this organ or
in that. In the brain they give rise to thought, in the heart to
anger, and in the liver to desire.
I suppose no one would care, at the present time, to become a
Democritean. The "Reason," which tells us that the mind consists of
fine, round atoms, appears to have nothing but its bare word to offer
us. But, apart from this, a peculiar difficulty seems to face us; even
supposing there are atoms of fire in the brain, the heart, and the
liver, what are the _thought_, _anger_, and _desire_, of which mention
is made?
Shall we conceive of these last as atoms, as void space, or as the
motion of atoms? There really seems to be no place in the world for
them, and _these are the mind so far as the mind appears to be
revealed_--they are _mental phenomena_. It does not seem that they are
to be identified with anything that the Atomistic doctrine admits as
existing. They are simply overlooked.
Is the modern materialism more satisfactory? About half a century ago
there was in the scientific world something like a revival of
materialistic thinking. It did not occur to any one to maintain that
the mind consists of fine atoms disseminated through the body, but
statements almost as crude were made. It was said, for example, that
the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile.
It seems a gratuitous labor to criticise such statements as these in
detail. There are no glands the secretions of which are not as
unequivocally material as are the glands themselves. This means that
such secretions can be captured and analyzed; the chemical elements of
which they are composed can be enumerated. They are open to inspection
in precisely the same way as are the glands which secrete them.
Does it seem reasonable to maintain that thoughts and feelings are
related to brains in this way? Does the chemist ever dream of
collecting them in a test tube, and of drawing up for us a list of
th
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