Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 13.djvu/374

360 As the waves follow each other in the order of time, c will travel from one to the other thus:

As c travels from E to E it can be no part of E, and must have a distinct existence of its own. The deportment of matter, energy, and consciousness, toward each other, is much like that of the three letters M, E, C, toward each other in our illustration. Let any person try to make these three letters one, as the ancients did by the entities for which they stand, or but two as the moderns do by them, and precisely the same muddle of inconceivability will arise with the letters as has arisen with the things. The materialist is not satisfied with trying to make himself and others believe that matter and energy produce consciousness, but he must believe that, no matter how often he changes his matter and energy, every new supply will produce the identical consciousness the old one did. If we wish a note of a certain pitch and timbre, we must have matter in a certain form; and, if we wish a sensation of a certain kind and quality, we must have energy of a certain mode. The tuning-fork or violin-string is not the energy of the vibrations, nor is the wave of motion the consciousness of sensation. It is necessary that the brain of to-day be like that of tomorrow if I get the same form of consciousness from it each time, but the brain is not the consciousness. To the form of brain there is not continuation of identity. The brain of to-day mimics that of days ago, because the elements of form are put together in the same order. The consciousness that appears is the identical consciousness, no matter what the form nor how much energy has escaped. If we declare matter and energy to be eternal, then we must declare the same of consciousness. We know matter as atomic, energy as rhythmic, and consciousness as individualized.



HE name of Du Bois-Reymond stands high among that group of illustrious scientific men of whom Germany may well be proud. He is known throughout the scientific world for his masterly researches in experimental physiology, having, while yet a young man, made a series of brilliant discoveries in electro-physiology, which at once placed him at the head of that delicate and important branch of investigation.

But the customary channels of international scientific 