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Page 31
"The only supposition having consistency is that that in which
consciousness inheres is the all-pervading ether. This we
know can be affected by molecules of matter in motion, and
conversely can affect the motions of molecules;--as witness
the action of light on the retina. In pursuance of this
supposition we may assume that the ether, which pervades not
only all space but all matter, is, under special conditions in
certain parts of the nervous system, capable of being affected
by the nervous changes in such way as to result in feeling,
and is reciprocally capable under these conditions of
affecting the nervous changes. But if we accept this
explanation, we must assume that the potentiality of feeling
is universal, and that the evolution of feeling in the ether
takes place only under the extremely complex conditions
occurring in certain nervous centres. This, however, is but
a semblance of an explanation, since we know not what the
ether is, and since, by confession of those most capable of
judging, no hypothesis that has been framed accounts for
all its powers. Such an explanation may be said to do no
more than symbolize the phenomena by symbols of unknown
natures."--["First Principles," � 71 _c_, definitive edition
of 1900.]
--"Inscrutable is this complex consciousness which has
slowly evolved out of infantine vacuity--consciousness
which, in other shapes, is manifested by animate beings at
large--consciousness which, during the development of every
creature, makes its appearance out of what seems unconscious
matter; _suggesting the thought that consciousness, in some
rudimentary form, is omnipresent._"[65]
[Footnote 65: _Autobiography_, vol. ii, p. 470.]
--Of all modern thinkers, Spencer was perhaps the most careful to
avoid giving encouragement to any hypothesis unsupported by powerful
evidence. Even the simple sum of his own creed is uttered only,
with due reservation, as a statement of three probabilities: that
consciousness represents a specialized and individualized form of the
infinite Energy; that it is dissolved by death; and that its elements
then return to the source of all being. As for our mental attitude
toward the infinite Mystery, his advice is plain. We must resign
ourselves to the eternal law, and endeavor to vanquish our ancient
inheritance of superstitious terrors, remembering that, "merciless as
is the Cosmic process worked out by an Unknown Power, yet vengeance is
nowhere to be found in it."[66]
[Footnote 66: _Facts and Comments_, p. 201.]
* * * * *
In the same brief essay there is another confession of singular
interest,--an acknowledgment of the terror of Space. To even the
ordinary mind, the notion of infinite Space, as forced upon us by
those monstrous facts of astronomy which require no serious study
to apprehend, is terrifying;--I mean the mere vague idea of that
everlasting Night into which the blazing of millions of suns can bring
neither light nor warmth. But to the intellect of Herbert Spencer the
idea of Space must have presented itself after a manner incomparably
more mysterious and stupendous. The mathematician alone will
comprehend the full significance of the paragraph dealing with the
Geometry of Position and the mystery of space-relations,--or the
startling declaration that "even could we penetrate the mysteries of
existence, there would remain still more transcendent mysteries."
But Herbert Spencer tells us that, apart from the conception of these
geometrical mysteries, the problem of naked Space itself became for
him, in the twilight of his age, an obsession and a dismay:--
... "And then comes the thought of this universal matrix
itself, anteceding alike creation or evolution, whichever be
assumed, and infinitely transcending both, alike in extent and
duration; since both, if conceived at all, must be conceived
as having had beginnings, while Space had no beginning. The
thought of this blank form of existence which, explored in
all directions as far as imagination can reach, has, beyond
that, an unexplored region compared with which the part which
imagination has traversed is but infinitesimal,--the thought
of a Space compared with which our immeasurable sidereal
system dwindles to a point is a thought too overwhelming to
be dwelt upon. Of late years the consciousness that without
origin or cause infinite Space has ever existed and must ever
exist, produces in me a feeling from which I shrink."
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