re the chain of conditions could not be finished because it
led on to infinity, where, however, it was required that it should be
complete. Here again the chain is incomplete. In the previous case a
solution is found through the naive proceeding of simply breaking the
empirical connection of conditions and postulating beginnings in time. In
this case, the admission of an _influxus physicus_ transforms
consciousness almost unnoticed into a mechanically operative causality.
The proper attitude in both cases is a critical one. We must admit that we
cannot penetrate into the true state of the case, because the world is
deeper than our knowledge, we must reject parallelism as being, like the
_influxus physicus_, an unsatisfactory cutting of the critical knot, and
we must frankly recognise the incontrovertible fact, never indeed
seriously called in question, of the controlling power of the mind, even
over the material.

The Supremacy of Mind.

From the standpoint we have now reached we can look back once more on
those troublesome naturalistic insinuations as to the dependence of the
mind upon the body, which we have already considered. It is evident to us
all that our mental development and the fate of our inner life are closely
bound up with the states and changes of the body. And it did not need the
attacks and insinuations of naturalism to point this out. But the reasons
brought forward by naturalism are not convincing, and all the weighty
facts it adduces could be balanced by facts equally weighty on the other
side. We have already shown that the apparently dangerous doctrine of
localisation is far from being seriously prejudicial. But if the
dependence of the mind upon the body be great, that of the body upon the
mind is greater still. Even Kant wrote tersely and drily about "the power
of our mind through mere will to be master over our morbid feelings." And
every one who has a will knows how much strict self-discipline and firm
willing can achieve even with a frail and wretched body, and handicapped
by exhaustion and weakness. Joy heals, care wastes away, and both may
kill. The influence which "blood" and "bile" or any other predisposition
may have upon temperament and character can be obviated or modified
through education, or transformed and guided into new channels through
strong psychical impressions and experiences, most of all by great
experiences in the domain of morals and religion. No one doubts the
re