Part 4 (1/2)

It is probably because we cannot simultaneously perform two contradictory actions, that we cannot contemplate consciousness, or think of an idea and at the same time think of that act of thought. In accordance with this, even Newton, and other great geniuses, have been unable to accurately describe the mental processes by means of which they arrived at their most difficult results. In consequence also of this, we cannot define consciousness, and are often {101} unable to directly observe or a.n.a.lyse our mental actions, especially those of a very abstruse or complex kind.

Much of the knowledge of the operations of our mind, we are therefore obliged to obtain by indirect means; by a.n.a.logies, and inferences from the phenomena of nature, &c., and in this way our knowledge of mental action largely depends upon our acquaintance with physical and chemical science, and can only advance as it advances. To clearly understand one subject we are often obliged to study several others. Ignorance of science in general, and of cerebral physiology in particular, is the chief obstacle to our acquiring a more accurate knowledge of mind.

Next to consistency, the great principle of causation const.i.tutes the most essential part of all natural truth, and to deny the operation of this principle in particular cases of mental action, simply because we, with our very finite powers, cannot in the extremely imperfect state of our knowledge, yet fully explain some of the most difficult, complex, transient, and ever-changing phenomena of will and consciousness, is contrary to the most weighty evidence. ”The Will” is a conscious mental effort to effect an object, the idea of which is already in the mind, and being a mental ”effort” it absorbs the mind and thereby incapacitates it at the moment from observing its own action.

If any phenomenon (such as mental action) is essentially dependent upon another, it must be connected {102} with it in a never-failing or indissoluble manner, so that when the one occurs the other is always present, otherwise it would not be essentially dependent. The only known connections of this kind are those causation and continuity of phenomena, according to which every phenomenon has a cause, and all phenomena are indissolubly connected in endless series. The evidence of the truth of these principles is so vast, that even all mankind thinking through all ages, and after having made an almost infinite number of definite experiments and observations, have never yet met with a single well verified instance of their failure; and we are therefore justified in inferring that they are universal. There are however instances in the physical and chemical sciences, as well as in mental action, where the dependence of phenomena upon those principles is not very apparent, and has not yet been sufficiently proved, but it is probably in consequence of our imperfect knowledge and limited faculties, that we are unable as yet to fully trace such dependence. The history of science, abundantly proves that we should not a.s.sume that a phenomenon arises without a natural cause, simply for the reason that it is very difficult to trace its origin, but wait patiently for more knowledge respecting it. It is unphilosophic and contrary to reason to attribute to occult agencies, effects which may be explicable by ordinary causes, or to refuse to believe in more abstruse causes where the a.s.sumption of simple ones is contradicted by some of the evidence. {103}

The principle of causation forms the basis of many minor ones, such as selection, evolution, differentiation, &c. Plurality of causes also is a very common circ.u.mstance in all the sciences, and especially in concrete phenomena, and in the complex ones of animal life; the arrival of a s.h.i.+p for example at a distant port, is a result of many conditions. Similarly with most of our mental actions, they are compounds of feeling and intellect, and produced by many causes, such as hereditary tendency, acquired habit, internal and external mental excitants, dogmatic belief, knowledge of empirical rules, and occasionally of verified principles.

Several of these causes also frequently conspire to produce a single idea or decision.

Various general principles of lesser magnitude arise from the combined action of two or more of the greater ones, and these also appear to operate in mental actions as well as in physical ones. Thus by the combined influence of causation and of the principle that every phenomenon occupies time, ”effects often lag behind their causes;” and in some cases during a long period. The greatest heat of summer for example usually occurs several weeks after mid-summer. The mental effects of early mistakes are often not fully experienced until old age. The decline of a nation also follows a long time behind the period of action of the chief causes which produce it.

Although effects are indissolubly connected with their causes, they frequently do not occur in an active form until a long period after them.

In such cases {104} they are stored up in what is termed a potential or latent state, ready for liberation at a future occasion, when the suitable conditions are present; the storage of chemical power in gunpowder, of solar heat in coal, and its subsequent liberation in our fires, are suitable examples. The principle of deferred activity and storing up of power, occurs also in vital and mental phenomena; potential heat is stored up in our food, and is afterwards evolved by oxidation in our tissues.

Muscular power is stored up during sleep, ready to be evolved during labour. The storage also of cerebral impressions, and cerebral energy, ready to call forth ideas, and thereby powerful emotions, by the exciting action of memory, may also be viewed as an instance of similar kind belonging to mental phenomena. A new and striking instance of the storage of energy has been shewn in Faure's improved form of secondary voltaic battery, in which the most powerful voltaic current may be (at least practically) stored up (in a box containing lead plates immersed in dilute sulphuric acid) and conveyed to a distance with little loss, and then liberated.

Exciting causes operate very extensively in mental actions as well as in physical ones, a mere look or word from an eloquent speaker will excite the pa.s.sions and liberate the muscular power of a mult.i.tude. Every part of the human body, especially the muscles and nerve centres, is a store-house of power always ready to be set free by the slightest suitable causes; this is strongly ill.u.s.trated in the irrepressible activity {105} of children, and in the excitable pa.s.sions of young men and women. The more immediate cause of this power is the oxidation of a.s.similated food; and the source of power in the food is the heat of the Sun stored up in the plants and animals they have eaten.

The subsequent liberation of power under the influence, often of very slight causes, long after the original cause has ceased to act, has led us to conclude erroneously that causes are not always proportional to effects.

Proportionality of effect to cause appears to be universal; it probably operates in mental as well as in physical actions, our faith in education as a means of intelligence is based upon this; the more complete the education of a particular individual, the greater usually is his degree of intelligence. Proportionality of cause to effect is apparently disobeyed not only in physical but also in mental phenomena. Throughout the whole realm of nature, minute circ.u.mstances often act as exciting, deflecting, and guiding causes, and contribute to the production of apparently disproportionate effects. Thus a spark will discharge the largest cannon; a touch determine the most distant electric signal; a word or look, excite the strongest emotions; the little change of position of a railway point will direct a train either to distant North or South; the minute change of contact of the telegraph switch, will determine the signal to places wide asunder; one false idea also at a critical moment will often lead a man or woman to ruin; and in all these cla.s.ses of cases, {106} whilst trifling causes _appear_ to produce great effects; the real causes are the stored up latent powers set free or directed. It is astonis.h.i.+ng how small a circ.u.mstance will excite an idea, and deflect the entire current of our thoughts; and it is equally surprising what great physical and chemical effects are often started by most minute exciting or deflecting conditions; the explosion of seven tons of dynamite at h.e.l.l-gate, near New York, by the pressure of a child's finger closing an electric circuit is a suitable example.

Every phenomenon therefore whether physical or mental, is probably connected in an indissoluble manner with some preceding phenomenon, either immediately in point of time, or remotely through some static condition, usually that of stored up power. In this sense the great principle of continuity of phenomena appears to be universal, and the present state of the Universe is said to implicitly or potentially contain all the future states of the Universe. Mind also in this way, like each of the physical forces, often acts as a link in an endless chain of causes and effects, and is connected with non-mental phenomena in accordance with the great principles of science.

Science has demonstrated what has been termed the ”Convertibility of Forces,” or, that when one form of energy disappears, another form (or forms) of energy, and in precisely equivalent amount, is produced in its stead, either in a latent or active state. The equivalent quant.i.ties of the various forms of {107} energy have also been discovered by actual experiment and measurement. A pound weight falling through 772 feet gives forth as much energy as would (in the form of heat) raise the temperature of one pound of water one Fahrenheit degree. We know that so much mechanical power is equal also to so much electric current, chemical action, &c., and a large amount of evidence exists to show that these transformations of energy occur in all the organs of living creatures, and in obedience to the law of their equivalents. How far mental power is a ”mode of energy” transformable, and obedient to the laws of equivalence, are interesting questions for future research.

The mechanical principle of action and reaction is another which can be traced in mental as well as in physical phenomena. Mental excitement is often succeeded by mental depression, ”after pleasure follows pain.” The power of mental self-guidance and self-education is largely dependent upon the two well known scientific principles of latent energy, and action and reaction. We are able to liberate energy, not only in cases where it will influence inanimate matter but also ourselves. The principle of self-guidance is not restricted to living creatures, nor is self-regulation limited to mental power. The principle of self-regulation operates in clocks, watches, musical boxes, the governors of steam engines, water regulators, gas regulators, &c., &c., and upon an immense scale in the movements of the heavenly {108} bodies. With the electric locomotive, the greater the load it has to draw, or the steeper the incline it has to ascend, the more strongly does it exert its strength, up to the full limits of its power. Neither in physical nor in mental actions can a body or force usually act directly upon itself to change its state whether of activity or rest. In both cla.s.ses of cases however we meet with plenty of instances where, a body by an almost imperceptible expenditure of energy on its own part either alters some surrounding conditions, or excites a powerful liberation of energy in another body which then reacts upon it to change its state. In this way the action of clock-work in the self-exploding apparatus of a torpedo liberates at a particular moment a spring, and causes an explosion which destroys the apparatus. Similarly, whilst a man, in many cases, is unable to _directly_ alter his mental state, to increase or diminish his mental activity, to cause sleep, &c., he is able _indirectly_ to change his mental condition by drinking stimulants or by adopting means of self-education; and to induce sleep by means of opium, suitable exercise, &c.

The principles of indestructibility or conservation of matter and energy, flow from the preceding ones, and are exhibited in mental actions as well as in physical ones. Whilst the universal experience of mankind has not yet afforded us a single well verified instance of actual creation or destruction of matter or energy, it has supplied us with plenty of examples of apparent destruction and creation of each of them. {109} But scientific knowledge corrects the uncertain testimony of consciousness; whilst we see coal burn and be apparently destroyed, science proves to us that the elements composing it remain undiminished. We observe also that the heat of the fire dissipates and is apparently lost for ever; but science again proves that it is either stored up in the latent state, ready to be again liberated at a future time, or else converted into other forms of energy. A given atom of matter or a portion of energy, therefore, to the best of our knowledge, continues and persists for ever. As we cannot either create or destroy matter so also can we not create or annihilate energy, and this truth probably holds good with regard to mental as well as to physical and chemical power. Great changes of state in bodies (as in the combustion of wood &c.) have led us to erroneously think that the substances are destroyed; and great apparent differences of property, such as those of diamond and charcoal, have led us similarly to conclude that they are entirely distinct and independent of each other when they are not.

As the cerebrum of man is composed of matter, and during excitement, its parts are active, we might confidently predict that its particles obey the First law of Motion, viz.: that a body in a state of rest or motion will continue in that state of rest or motion until some cause arise to prevent it. So it has been found that the action of the vital and mental forces have a degree of persistence, like the physical ones. It has been experimentally found that portions of {110} living bone transplanted to fleshy parts of animals where there was no bone, continued to grow for a time by a life of their own, and increased by formation of additional bone, like a crystal grows in its medium; but after a time they diminished and disappeared. In a similar manner we are all of us aware of the persistency of ideas, even in opposition to the will, after the cause of them has been removed. Sometimes we cannot retain an idea because of the persistence of others; and at other times we cannot get rid of one, for a similar reason.

Our mental habits also have often very great persistence.

The principle of heredity may be viewed as a result of the First law of Motion, and appears as Persistency of state, either of structure, form, or mode of action. It appears both in inanimate bodies, living structures, and in mental phenomena; in the latter, as hereditary mental peculiarities. The principle of Persistency of structure and Heredity of form and property, during repeated or even continual dissolution and aggregation of a material substance, is more or less manifest nearly throughout the whole of nature.

In the formation of crystals it is clearly seen; each crystallizable substance will only grow into its own shape or shapes; each particle of common salt, during an endless series of successive solutions and aggregations into the solid state, always forms a more or less perfect cube; that of silica a hexagon; and so on throughout the entire series of thousands of different crystalline bodies. As each {111} form of crystal only produces crystals of like form and property (or at most in certain cases a limited number of modified forms, as in the instance of calcic carbonate, &c.) so also each seed, both of animals and vegetables, only produces its own particular essential shape and collection of functions.

The same principle shews itself in the transmission of particular types of disease, and of eccentricities of organization, from one generation to another of animals. Peculiar malformations of body and characteristics of mind often persist in families from generation to generation. This persistency or heredity of structure and of property is not limited to solid bodies, but exists also in liquids: ”The effect of vaccine virus upon the liquid blood, in producing a permanent and organic change in its const.i.tution and character, which continues to exercise a protective influence against small-pox, in the great ma.s.s of cases, through a long life, during which time the blood must have undergone, many thousands, if not millions of changes and modifications.” (F. Winslow. ”Obscure diseases of Brain and Mind,” page 432). The same persistency of structure and property of structure, has even been detected in vapours; the vapour of red iodide of mercury for example, deposits only crystals of red iodide, whilst that of the yellow deposits only yellow (see Gmelin's Handbook of Chemistry, vol. 1, p. 100.)

We often appear to mentally select when we only yield to causes acting upon us, _i.e._, to the strongest influence or motive. That ”self-preservation is the {112} first law of nature,” is not only true of living creatures, but largely also of dead substances. Inanimate as well as animate matter, appears to usually select what is good for itself. Apparent selection, which is manifested in the phenomena of instinct, is exhibited not only by brain, but by all material substances. Acids appear to select bases, North magnetism rejects North and prefers South magnetism. Also if a piece of zinc is put into a mixed solution of the nitrates of silver, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium, lithium, sodium, pota.s.sium, and rubidium, it will select the silver only with which to form a ”metallic tree,” and reject all the other metals. Everything which aggregates or grows to a definite shape, appears to select its material; if a crystal of a particular salt is placed in a mixture of saturated solutions of different salts, it will only select and a.s.similate to itself suitable material, either particles of the same composition as itself, or those which are isomorphous with it, _i.e._ belonging to the same crystalline system. In living bodies also, the same principle operates; Living tissues, whether of animals or vegetables, usually select from their nutrient fluids, and a.s.similate, particles only of those kinds of matter which are suitable for their structure; in this way, a bone a.s.similates lime and phosphoric acid from the mult.i.tude of different substances conveyed to it by the blood. And in all these cases, the selecting material appears to act as if it possessed the powers of instinct, perception, comparison, judgment, and {113} volition. The act of self-repair is clearly connected with this, and is not limited to living structures; Sir David Brewster observed that if a portion of the surface of a perfect crystal of alum is very slightly abraded by dissolving a film from it, and the crystal be then immersed during a very brief period in a saturated solution of alum, the abraded portion repairs itself. The subjects of ”malformation of crystals,” and ”diseases of crystals” have been scientifically investigated. The power of selection (or rather of apparent selection) is no doubt a result of the combined action of causation and of the inherent properties of bodies, and depends, like consciousness, upon difference of impression, the strongest suitable influence determining. If apparent selection can thus be performed by inanimate matter, we should not, except for a very sufficient reason, a.s.sume the existence in living creatures, of a special occult power to perform the same function. In the selection of ideas also the intellect acts according to the purely scientific method.

We frequently appear to mentally adapt ourselves to particular circ.u.mstances when we are really determined by causes; and this apparent adaptation is also seen in ordinary physical and chemical phenomena. The course of a river for instance, adapts itself to the configuration of the country through which it flows, and if it cannot pa.s.s wholly by one channel, as in seasons of flood, or on occasions of accidental obstruction, it travels through several; and a similar result {114} occurs with the flow of the blood when an artery is tied or becomes obstructed. A plant when growing in a dark recess, bends itself towards the light as if it preferred light; and its roots adapt themselves to the forms of existing obstacles. A decapitated frog jumps away from a source of irritation, as if he still possessed sensation, volition, and choice. A man seeking his way through a crowd avoids the course in which the throng is densest. The human mind also, chooses as it were, the easiest way of solving a problem, and usually adapts itself to altered circ.u.mstances.

The principle of evolution also operates both in physical and mental actions, and is a result of that of causation. Complexity of structure and function is evolved out of simplicity of composition and property by plurality of causes and conditions. For instance, many complex forms of crystals of ice are produced from water. Calcspar crystallizes in more than one hundred varieties of form, (all derived from an obtuse rhombohedron) under the influence of a number of slightly different conditions of temperature, impurities in the solution, &c. The most complex bodies are evolved out of the simplest, the bodily frame of man himself (and that of other animals) is constructed of less than twenty of the elementary substances. The same simple substances are capable of yielding very different and more complex bodies under different conditions; thousands of different chemical compounds are composed of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon only. In the development of {115} living forms from ova, the ultimate form produced does not exist in the germ, any more than a crystal exists in its solution, but is a natural consequence of the forces acting in and upon the germ, like the cubical form of a crystal of common salt is a result of the forces acting in its const.i.tuents under the conditions of its environment, especially those of pressure and temperature. The extent to, and manner in which, the force and principle operate, depend upon the material substance, and its conditions internal and external.

It is a common circ.u.mstance, both in physical, mental, and moral subjects, for the apparent to be the very opposite of the real. This general truth has been repeatedly ill.u.s.trated in an incidental manner in this book, and need not be much further elucidated. Phenomena are none the less real, however, because they are not readily manifest; our earth is as much tied to the sun by the invisible power of gravity, as if it was attached to it by visible material chains. Mistaking the apparent for the real, largely explains the persistency of certain beliefs, and why it is that persons unacquainted with science, cling to self-deception, and resist some of the most firmly established truths. The more evident but untrue explanation is believed, whilst the less apparent but true one is rejected. It is the chief cause of the belief that ”the will is a supernatural power.” To a scientific man however, apparent contradictions are not unfrequently a sign of truth; too accurate results sometimes {116} indicate that they have been artificially made to appear correct.

Sympathetic action or propagation of similar influence by immediate impulse, is a property of all the natural forms of energy, as well as of mind. Similar actions are propagated thus in all kinds of dead substances, as well as in the living brain. Matter is sympathetic to sound in the phenomena of singing-flames, and a vibrating string responds to a particular note in obedience to well-known laws. Iodide of nitrogen may be caused to explode by the influence of a particular note from a fiddle. In the phenomena of light, with a spectroscope, a luminous gas is sympathetic with, and emits and absorbs, only particular kinds of luminous rays. In chemical action also, combustion excites combustion, ferment excites ferment, infection communicates infection, and the similar chemical change is transmitted from molecule to molecule. Mental excitement and disease in one person, often excite similar phenomena in another, as is seen in ”religious revivals,” and well-known epidemics, such as the ”dancing mania,” ”preaching epidemics,” the ”leaping ague,” the ”mewing contagion,”

etc., etc., (See ”Epidemics of the Middle Ages,” by Hecker; Sydenham Society publications; also Carpenter's Mental Physiology, p. 312.) Like excites like in the actions of each of the forces of nature; both in physical, chemical, and mental action, the kind of impulse transmitted is similar, unless conditions exist which trans.m.u.te it. Dynamite, {117} started into combustion by a flame, burns slowly away; but when started by a detonating substance, detonates violently. Guthrie has also discovered that if a melted cryohydrate (_e. g._ a chilled saturated aqueous solution of a solid salt) is cooled to a certain greater extent, it will not solidify--nothing separates out, although the solution is four or five degrees below its proper solidifying point. If a little crystal of ice be then thrown into it, nothing separates but ice, which comes to the surface.

If we throw in a little anhydrous salt, nothing but the anhydrous salt separates out, and that sinks to the bottom. But if we throw into it a crystal of a previous crop of cryohydrate, then nothing but the cryohydrate separates. In this case also, like evidently excites like only, in obedience to physical laws. (Addresses, Science Conferences; South Kensington Museum, 1876; Vol. 2, p. 108). Even two clocks, when hung near each other, against a board or surface which readily transmits vibrations, have been known to exhibit, by synchronous action, an apparent sympathy, which changed their rate of going.