the cathedral of life, even in the humblest protozoön; but all architects must have time to learn their trade. Again, the activities of man, especially those activities which are accompanied by consciousness and will, were also for long thought to be outside the physical world. But the case is so far altered that the burden of proof is now shifted to the other side. The philosopher who claims to interpolate a psychical link in the chain of physical processes which connects nerve-stimulus with action has to meet the challenge of the physiologist.
We have grounds for hoping, then, that, if we are content to wait, the difficulties in the way of a physical explanation of telepathy may ultimately diminish. And meanwhile the hypothesis of telepathy is in no worse case than is, or was until recently,[1] the hypothesis of gravitation. The energy which causes weight conforms to the law of the inverse square; but the only physical explanations of its action which have been suggested are so cumbrous and involve such large assumptions as to be little more than curiosities of speculation. On the other hand, we have little difficulty in conceiving of a mechanism by which telepathy could operate; the difficulty is to account for the energy not diminishing more rapidly as the distance increases. But, after all, is is inconceivable that the energy, when it is liberated under the most favourable cir-
- ↑ Possibly the recent discovery that atoms are not atomic, and that their constituent parts may, under certain circumstances, move freely through space, may facilitate the acceptance of a corpuscular theory of gravitation.
