with equal lucidity, and by
the same universal formula, the history of a gnat or the history of a
sun--confessed itself, before the Riddle of Existence, scarcely less
helpless than the mind of a child.

But for me the supreme value of this last essay is made by the fact
that in its pathetic statement of uncertainties and probabilities one
can discern something very much resembling a declaration of faith.
Though assured that we have yet no foundation for any belief in the
persistence of consciousness after the death of the brain, we are
bidden to remember that the ultimate nature of consciousness remains
inscrutable. Though we cannot surmise the relation of consciousness
to the unseen, we are reminded that it must be considered as a
manifestation of the Infinite Energy, and that its elements, if
dissociated by death, will return to the timeless and measureless
Source of Life.... Science to-day also assures us that whatever
existence has been--all individual life that ever moved in animal
or plant,--all feeling and thought that ever stirred in human
consciousness--must have flashed self-record beyond the sphere of
sentiency; and though we cannot know, we cannot help imagining that
the best of such registration may be destined to perpetuity. On this
latter subject, for obvious reasons, Herbert Spencer has remained
silent; but the reader may ponder a remarkable paragraph in the final
sixth edition of the "First Principles,"--a paragraph dealing with
the hypothesis that consciousness may belong to the cosmic ether.
This hypothesis has not been lightly dismissed by him; and even while
proving its inadequacy, he seems to intimate that it may represent
imperfectly some truth yet inapprehensible by the human mind:--

"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 ass