118 Agnostic Land of Promise. [INTERLUDE. There would be a organism and its environment. retardation of that grand progress which is bearing humanity onward to a higher intelligence and a nobler character." Thus to believe that we are not free but slaves of fate, is given as ennobling and inspiring to higher things, although the highest aim of each individual is simple annihilation. It should hardly seem necessary in the nineteenth century to undertake to refute such a position as that, and arguments are unnecessary. These doctrines have been taught in their essential elements in various philosophies for thousands of years, and all history shows that where they prevailed they brought forth moral decay, social corruption, and political catastrophe, and their tendency is the same to-day, for lapse of time has not changed the essential elements of human nature. LECTURE III. A PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW: WHAT IS MAN? I.-ANALYSIS. "Know thyself," said Socrates. "Teach me to know mine end," prayed a greater than he. To understand the personal problem, a general understanding of the nature of humanity and of man's relation to the Unseen is of very great importance. In our search for these general principles, let us lay down first of all a foundation of things that must be accepted as true, and avoid all questionable assumptions. Then after laying our foundation stones, let us build as we have evidence sufficient to satisfy our reason, and still be careful of accepting anything on authority: and then if we have to go farther and tread where science cannot go, let us still retain our commonsense and the scientific method. If we take a few steps farther with philosophy and find her faltering-for her work is really to systematize what science provides,-let us lend her the light of our new revelation-a revelation which prolongs into the unseen that truth of which science had given us an alphabet, and which throws back over all that true science gives us the light of a higher endorsation. In these regions science may give suggestions, and sift our evidence for us, but cannot lead and cannot stop us: philosophy may learn something more for her system building, but cannot teach and dare not hinder. Here we walk by faith, but still keep our common-sense and our 120 We want as logical Basis [LECT. scientific method in our search for deepest, highest truthstesting all by that ultimate criterion of common sense, by asking how it works practically. Many a beautiful system has split on this rock and been lost forever, and any system that cannot stand that test ought to perish. I. Now, what fundamental truth can we lay down in our philosophy, which cannot be called in question, without turning the world into a lunatic asylum and all men into idiots? Every man may speak for himself, and say I think, I am a thinking being; and I know I think, I know I am a thinking being. If I use the pronoun "I" a good deal here, you will of course remember that it is simply in a representative sense. I take it for granted that I am a man, and if I can find out what I am and what I ought to be, and make the same plain to you, I presume I shall have answered the question "What is man?" in its general outlines at least. Well, I-the-thinker know that I think. You cannot tell what I am thinking about; I cannot tell what you are thinking about; but I know that I am thinking of this or that, or the other. Sometimes my "think" seems to run away from my "know," when I fall into a reverie for instance, but I can bring the "think" back when I choose. But here are two words in this last sentence, "can," and "choose "—what do they mean? They show me something more about the me-the-thinker: there is a certain something in me which CAN act, and which waits for orders from within, viz., from a something which wills, decides. I have will-force, and with my will-force I can control my thinking-power. While cogitating this lecture I walk to the window of my study in my cottage by the sea, and my eye takes in the pleasant view of Yedo Bay with its sparkling water, its lumbering junks and white sails afar, the hills beyond. But unhindered there, I spring across the broad Pacific, and find myself again under 111.] Patent facts, not assumptions 121 the gorgeous canopy of a Canadian maple forest, radiant in autumnal splendour, and once more in a little log school-house learn c-a-t cat, d-o-g dog. And then with another bound, I find myself beyond the Atlantic, walking in academic groves of grand old Germany, learning from giant minds my a, b, c of philosophy. But my rest-time is up, and I know it; I call back my think-force; glance for a moment at the hills, the water, the ships, that have never ceased to be reflected in the retina of my bodily eye, but till now unheeded; listen for a moment to the street cries and the sighing winds which all unheard have been thumping on the tympanum of my bodily ear. I will to put my think-force to other work; so I sit down, and take a book, by means of which my antipodes and the dead speak to me; and again, oblivious to a thousand physical attacks upon eyes and ears I try to walk with my German giants in teeming fields of thought. But my will-force is not confined to my think-power. It can move what men call matter. I go to bed when body grows weary and mind cannot lash it into further work. "Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," calms the nerves, and tired body grows strong again. Meanwhile, the vagrant think, unguided of will-force, wanders through the universe and the ages. Morning dawns; I am conscious of my surroundings. My limbs and muscles all lie flaccid, unmoved; my eyes even do not open. Absolute rest. The day's work passes before my mind's eye; my heart kindles at the thought of it; and as soon as I choose, I give notice to my will-force, that gives notice to nerves, muscles, limbs, and I find my body out of bed, and in a little while pen in hand my will-force puts down what my think-force has been cogitating. I can control the law of gravitation and make it serve me. I lift my hand, and hold my arm horizontally because I will. I can do it or not do it as I please. In a word I am free,-free 122 Man is Mind. [LECT. within the limits of the element in which I live and for which I am created. My will-force is free to determine my actions; my actions which I can do are free as far as ability extends; that within me which thinks is free, unbounded by the universe, unfettered of the ages. And now what have we found? 1. There is in me that which thinks, and I know I think. I am a personality, an individuality. 2. There is that in me which wills, determines, decides. I am an agent, a Cause,-in a certain sense a First Cause. 3. There is that within me which chooses between alternatives; may repent and choose another way, or may not. I am a free agent, and responsible for my actions; for the use of my powers which think and know and act. We have seen phenomena, things, actions, and have established these common-sense facts of forces in me-the-thinker. And you cannot deny these things, without denying man's sanity and responsibility and the possibility of morality. A man who cannot think is an idiot; a man who has no will is worse-is a fool a man who is not free, has no freedom of choice, is either a machine or a slave. You will allow me to call these three things united, Mind. And we come to the conclusion that MAN IS MIND. II. But, you say, that is only a part, and the least evident part of man. What then am I besides Mind? Remember we must make no hasty assumptions here. Why, you reply, you have a body,- a body composed of matter, and some say that your mind is nothing but the adjustment and motion of that matter. Oh, indeed! And what then is this matter? But before we begin to discuss the point, let me just say that behind the, I |