Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/245

 232 E. GUENEY: FUETHEE PEOBLEMS OF HYPNOTISM, (i.) can never really seem explanatory of a novel order till their connotation has grown that is, till the novel order has ceased to be novel ; and meanwhile pseudo-explanation is only too easy. But the phenomena of telepathy are there, and, however much hidden from our sight, the process of causation must be there also ; and some indulgence may be claimed for a hypothetical picture of that process which is confessedly crude, as long as its crudeness is the result of an attempt to make its elements distinct. Now, the notion of segregated departments of mental life, of which a more com- plete intelligence can perceive the unity, is not an indistinct notion, though probably it very imperfectly represents the facts ; and if it has any truth at all, then ' plane of conscious- ness ' has a true psychical meaning, and is more than a slippery metaphorical phrase. And if the plea of necessity will excuse the use of physical terms, so, I think, will it excuse the use of metaphysical, in spite of a certain awkward- ness in the actuality suddenly given to somewhat recondite notions. For in truth the problems which telepathy pre- sents lie on the borderland of psychology and metaphysics ; and in attacking them psychology has to trespass, or rather to make distinct claims, on the metaphysical territory. It finds itself driven, by the facts under observation, to tie down to actual individual cases ideas like those of uncon- scious mind and of a transcendental self which have dwelt so continuously in the misty heights of purely abstract reasonings, that they present an odd, incongruous appear- ance when brought to earth. The "philosophy of the unconscious" is shy of adapting itself to the unconscious part of Mr. A.: it seems hardly worth while for the 'self* to be transcendent, if all that it is to transcend is the ordinary phenomenal consciousness of Madame B. Yet, Mr. A. and Madame B. are types of humanity ; and in examining the bond which unites them, we are really on the traces of an idealism which is metaphysical enough in all conscience, as pointing to a potential unity of all similarly constructed minds, but which is nothing if not concrete, and a key to nothing except immediate facts of individual experience. (To be continued.)