ginning, the reason, and the end, of all things, yet, as all combinations of elements producing consciousness are only compounded through experience, apparently experience must lead the way. It may be possible that each Greater Ego, as a whole, is a priori the master of these mysteries; for it must be remembered that the states of consciousness are composed of but a small proportion of the elements of the organism, and therefore each combination of elements, on realising its second consciousness in the brain, must necessarily be an incomplete combination if the organism as a whole is considered. It is reasonable to surmise that there are elements in the universe which we are unable to use, by reason of our not having the organs of these elements in the brain; but supposing that mankind, in, perhaps, the distant future, becomes possessed of the necessary organs, it will then, as I have already said, be possible that the now apparently unfathomable mysteries of life and the universe may be understood and explained. CHAPTER V CONSCIOUSNESS, SUBCONSCIOUSNESS, AND UNCONSCIOUSNESS CONTINUING our investigations and carrying with us the previously worked out assumptions that all life is composed of the three groups of elementary substances-Mind, matter, and force. Consciousness, Subconsciousness, and Unconsciousness therefore must be composed entirely of the above elements, and, as they (the states of mind) are evidently representative of the mental aspect of life, the elements of matter and force are generally left out of sight, when the above states are considered; though there is no evidence that consciousness in any form, or intelligence either, exist independently of matter and force-but as we have already postulated the hypothesis that the above states comprise the elements of each division, we may be allowed to consider them in their mental, and not in their material, aspect. It will be generally conceded that all which is initiative in man's life is comprised in the heading of this chapter. But if we refer to these three mental states by their alternative names-the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the unconscious mind, no doubt many scientists will at once object to certain forces which are inseparable from the unconscious-as those which carry on the process of digestion, for example-being included in the conditions of mind. But whether it be called the unconscious mind, or simply the unconscious, all this particular mind or mental state, as well as all states of consciousness, and subconsciousness, will be found included in the comprehensive Mind which I have designated the Greater Mind; and they are all comprised of the same elementary substances. Thus, when Greater Mind is doing its work through the brain, we have Consciousness, or the conscious mind. When Greater Mind is allowing certain combinations of its elements to use their organs in the brain desultorily, we have Subconsciousness, or the subconscious mind. And when the Greater Mind is performing its functions independently of the brain, we have— The Unconscious; or, the unconscious mind. Some of my critics to whom I have submitted certain parts of my theory have been under the impression that I had made a confusion between the Greater Mind and the unconscious mind, but the Greater Mind very widely differs from the unconscious mind, since it is much more comprehensive, for in addition to the unconscious, it includes the subconscious, the conscious, and also every intelligence belonging to the organism, and I place whatever claim there may be of originality here, upon the fact that, in the term "Greater Mind " —as I use it—the three minds (all inner intelligences included) are Unified, and so, what I profess to have discovered, is, not a new mind, but the elements and constitution of these three minds unified as they are in the Greater Mind. Von Hartmann, I must point out, assumes that "the unconscious is a pure and spiritual activity, without a substratum of nerve or brain, which are the bases of consciousness"; while this theory argues that the Greater Mind is a colony of pure and spiritual activities, which, nevertheless, are elementary substances; and that the nerve and brain-the bases of consciousness-are merely organs constructed, maintained, and directed, by the elements of the Greater Mind, similarly to all the other varieties of organs. It would more truly express my views if I were to say that the brain, the nerves, and all the various organs in the body are themselves the development of the three classes of elements. I do not wish it to be supposed that the elements are outside the brain, nerves, and organs, and direct them as a man might direct the movements of a horse. From Plato to the present time, scientists generally have been conscious of a spiritual activity, although they have not been unanimous with regard to the form it takes. Thus, Plato's conception of it was the Absolute Idea. Hegel's is the same; von Hartmann's is the Will and Idea; Spinoza's is the Substance; Schopenhauer's is the Will; Fichtor's is the Absolute Ego; Schelling's is the Absolute Subject Object, and so on. Such are some of the terms applied to assumed substances, and speculative theories. These substances have never been analytically reduced into technical elements, because the means to do this never probably occurred to their authors, nor has any one ever been able to explain what they are, and how they work. But, so far from this present theory being speculative, I have advanced in it, many definite hypotheses, which I hold can be proved or falsified by experiment; and the elements upon which they are founded are always conveniently at hand when required for experimental purposes. Dr. Schofield, in his work on the "Unconscious Mind," gives a number of interesting extracts from the writings of thinkers on both sides of the Unconscious Mind theory. From those who are antagonistic to it he quotes Bowne ("Unconscious knowing and willing are phrases which defy all interpretation"), Ladd ("To speak of unconscious psychical or mental states as belonging to mind, is to use the words that are quite unintelligible. To talk of unconscious mental states is to talk of the inconceivable, of wooden iron, of the unconscious conscious"), Montgomery ("Every one feels that to speak of unconscious mental states is not only uttering a paradox, but to be almost as |