Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/195

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NDER cover of the words placed at the head of this paper, it is proposed to call attention to a few only of the more salient points involved in the subject, and especially to those suggested in a recent article in this journal, in which the attempt is made to apply the principle of correlation to certain forces (called indifferently mental and spiritual), without recognizing that highly-important factor in the manifestation of all known force, viz., matter.

In examining any subject from what claims to be a scientific point of view, established facts must not be ignored; and in proportion to the importance of the question which science is called upon to answer, should be the exactness of the solution offered.

It has been conclusively shown, by experimental methods similar to those employed in demonstrating other correlations, that emotion and thought are correlated with heat and electricity; and the correlation between thought and mass motion through the action of nerve and muscle, is constantly exhibited in the human body. It must, then, be admitted that these forces (thought, etc.), like those with which they are correlated, are manifestations of matter.

The scientist knows of no mode of energy manifested in any other way than through matter; and the supposed "cycle of operations in which there is no annihilation of spiritual force" must be regarded, not as a cycle, but rather as a segment of the great cycle which includes all natural phenomena.

The idea of annihilation either of matter or of force is inadmissible to science; but there is a constant shifting—a disappearing and reappearing—of different modes of energy, corresponding to the unceasing mutations of matter; the special force manifested in any given case depending on the kinds and conditions of the matter involved.

The supposition of other kinds of force, differing from those recognized by the physicist, implies either different kinds of matter, or the same kinds differently conditioned.

The relations of the different parts of an organism to each other, and of the entire organism to its environment (the environment including other organisms, as well as inorganic matter), must all be scrutinized when we attempt to trace the source of the power manifested by any organism, A symphony of Beethoven is made up of bars and interludes—of points and rests—of quavers and semiquavers