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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
When we vaguely separate them in thought and analyze what we have done, we find that we have called consciousness turned inward by the name of life, and life turned outwards by the name of consciousness. When our attention is fixed on unity, we say life; when it is fixed upon multiplicity, we say consciousness ; and we forget that the multiplicity is due to, is the essence of, matter, the reflecting surface, in which the one becomes the many. When it is said that life is ' more or less conscious,' it is not the abstraction life that is thought of, but' a living thing,' more or less aware of its surroundings” (* A Study in Consciousness,' by Annie Besant, p. 32).
This, however, does not explain the part played by matter in the manifestation of conscious phenomena; but William James, whose opinion as a psychologist has been already referred to, strikes the true note when he says :
“When the physiologist who thinks that his science cuts off all hope of immortality pronounces the phrase, Thought is a function of the brain,' he thinks of the matter just as he thinks when he says, 'Steam is a function of the tea-kettle,' 'Light is a function of the electric circuit, Power is a function of the moving waterfall.' In these latter cases the several material objects have the function of inwardly creating or engendering their effects, and their function must be called productive function. Just so, he thinks, it must be with the brain. Engendering consciousness in its interior, much as it engenders cholesterin and creatin, and carbonic acid, its relation to our soul's life must also be called productive function.... But in the world of physical nature, productive function of this sort is not the only kind of function with which we are familiar.. ... In the case of a coloured glass, a prism, or a refracting lens, we, have transmissive function. The energy of light, no matter how produced, is by the glass sifted and limited in colour, and by the lens or prism determined to a certain path and shape. Similarly, the keys of an organ
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