Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/309

Rh all the contents of our consciousness rather than that which we can draw by discarding the internal evidence which consciousness brings us? The hypothesis which I offer for your consideration is this:

Consciousness has the power to change the form of energy, and is neither a form of energy nor a state of protoplasm.

By this hypothesis there are two fundamentally different things in the universe, force and consciousness. You ask why I do not say three, and add matter? My answer is that we do not have, and never have had, any evidence whatever that matter exists. All our sensations are caused by force and by force only, so that the biologist can say that our senses bring no evidence of matter. The concept 'matter' is an irrational transfer of notions derived from the gross molar world of the senses to the molecular world. Faraday long ago pointed out that nothing was gained and much lost by the hypothesis of material atoms, and his position seems to me impregnable. It would be a great contribution to science to kill off the hypothesis of matter as distinct from force.

To conclude: The universe consists of force and consciousness. As consciousness by our hypothesis can initiate the change of the form of energy, it may be that without consciousness the universe would come to absolute rest. Since I close with a bold speculation let my last words recall to you that my text is: Investigate consciousness by comparative observations. Only from observation can we know. Correct, intelligent, exhaustive observation is our goal. When we reach it human science will be completed.