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It will be gathered that this theory of the Greater Mind favours the Monistic view of the ultimate unity of substance, maintaining that the elements both of mind and of matter are of the same family; and that the elements of all the physical forces, as heat, electricity, &c., have no separate independent existence, but also belong to the same family as that of mind and matter, and are compounded with them into one substance. But while this and the Monistic theories meet in ultimate agreement they begin from widely different starting-points.

Mankind has always intuitively felt that there is a singleness in everything-the one God, the one universe, the one humanity. But mankind refuses to accept as all in all the oneness of Monism. It is not satisfying, it is insufficient, more detail is wanted. A new oneness is needed-the oneness of Pluralism in Unism.

CHAPTER XIII

SHOWING HOW THE GREATER MIND THEORY DIFFERS FROM OTHER THEORIES

HAVING now described my own theory, I will endeavour to explain wherein it differs from other theories.

The usual practice with metaphysicians is to make an investigation into the soundness of prevailing theories, and subject them to searching criticism, before explaining their own; but the Greater Mind theory is built up independently of these theories, hence I have not found it necessary as yet for the elucidation of my own, to consider the numerous theories in existence, except in a cursory sort of

way.

But I feel now to be in a position to do two things at the same time, for whilst comparing this theory with some well-known theories, and showing wherein I consider they fail, I can also further explain the peculiar character of my own.

The first theory to compare it with is—

THE SOUL THEORY-that is to say, the belief in a unified immortal entity inhabiting only the bodies of Mankind.

My objection to the above is that the word "soul"

conveys to scientists an indefinite and unscientific meaning. If it implies the life's spirit, the vital essence, then it may be simply another name for that part of my commonwealth of life which is represented by the elements of Mind. But the difficulty remains in the term being understood to mean the life's spirit in man only. By people who adopt the word in this restricted sense all other animals are devoid of souls, to this view my theory is distinctly opposed.

The Greater Mental elements comprising the Greater Mind, or life's essences, as shown in the intelligence possessed by the various forms of life is the soul of each life, therefore all life must possess a soul if Greater Mind and Soul are taken to mean one and the same thing; but if the soul be limited to man, it cannot represent Greater Mind; while the theory of the soul as a distinct entity is incapable of logically explaining the soul's relation to matter, without bringing up that great stumbling-block, Authority.

THE HYPOTHESIS THAT MIND IS A DISTINCT ENTITY, OR ELEMENTARY SUBSTANCE,—which was the generally accepted theory before the Unconscious Mind was recognised, and before the realisation of the possibility of different personalities inhabiting the same body.

With regard to this hypothesis which is similar to the soul theory, but obviously extends to all animals, the difficulties involved in the conception of Mind as

an elementary substance, irrespective of bodily modifications, are now generally admitted to be so great, that they hardly need be discussed here; the phenomena associated with multiple personalities, the influence of diseases on the mind, and the varying conditions of the individual, all appear to render it untenable.

THE THEORY THAT THE MIND IS DIVIDED INTO CERTAIN MASSIVE ELEMENTARY SECTIONS, SUCH AS WILL, FEELING, AND INTELLECT, under one or other of which all mental phenomena can be classified. My exception to the principle of this theory is, that any division of the Mind into distinct faculties must be a secondary, and not a primary process; that it is really a division into certain grouped phases of the Mind (secondary combination derived from primary elements) that in fact, Will, Feeling, and Intellect, describe certain common characteristics which occur when certain primary elements enter into certain particular combinations. It is a classification of combinations of elements, and not of elementary characters of Mind.

THE MATERIALIST THEORY-that there is an underlying stratum which forms the basis of Mind, which varies under many conditions, and manifests itself in secondary phases, as will, feeling, intellect, &c., and is in some way the result of the massed conditions of the material forces of the body at the special moment of consciousness.

With regard to the Materialist conception, I

agree with it that Mind will manifest itself in a series of combinations, the apparent result of so many co-operating causes, and that in fact the conscious mind is phasial, and not elementary, in character.

But I am unable to conceive how the mental forces, when working with intelligence and reason, can be interpreted by terms which apparently can apply only to the blind forces of the Materialist. And I further submit, that the Materialist theory is at fault in maintaining that there were more than a single independent substance in original noumenon; and also that matter is an original substance, fundamentally distinct from mind, force, or motion.

At the same time my theory is more in accord with Materialism than it is with the Spiritualist school of thought. Scientists have been practically obliged to accept Materialism, because of the inability of the Spiritualistic school to explain their position-how their occult forces are capable of elucidating facts, and to account for the known laws of science.

On the other hand, although the Materialistic theory fails to fully and satisfactorily demonstrate the phenomena of Mind, and the evolution of the mental, in combination with the physical, they, the Materialists, at least have a firm basis to argue from. They proceed to the unknown from the known, and are therefore in more logical case than the Spiritualistic theorists, whose researches, being confined to

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