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authoritatively, as some do, that matter is cut off hopelessly from mind, that there can be no communication between them, they seem to contradict their own statement; since the mind is dealing with matter in the very affirmation by which it declares matter to be unapproachable. It is not, then, with the idea of matter, that the mind finds difficulty. This it works with in all its theories, and discovers nothing in it self-destructive, or destructive to the notion of mind. Whether, however, this idea, so manageable within the mind, has any outward thing that corresponds with it, is a question of simple proof, and, if such proof be present, yields no new perplexity. If the mind can in thought handle things so unlike itself as natural objects, it can also recognize their actual being on sufficient evidence. But it is said, there can be no such evidence, for such evidence implies not an ideal, but an actual influence of matter on mind. Is there, then, a clear a priori impossibility, that there should be found in the phenomena of mind such traces of the influences of matter as to furnish the grounds for an inference of its existence? To the ordinary mind this question presents not the least difficulty. To it, sensations, perceptions, are plainly such traces. But, says one who has longer contemplated the problem, is not space the condition of all material being, and is not this the one form which has no actual relevance to acts of mind? Is not consciousness the essential characteristic of thought, and does not this in turn exclude altogether physical forces? How then shall a material force strike within consciousness, or how shall a mental activity leave it to appear in space? Here undoubtedly our powers of explanation are at fault. The inquiries put us lie too deep in the secret nature, the unphenomenal nature of things to admit of that phenomenal statement or explanation which is sought for. Indeed, in the very language in which our queries are urged, we have