modes of acting mechanically are, no doubt, limited to the extent of the investing organism. Nay, in order to their extending even so far, it is necessary that the unity of the organism be maintained by the healthy integrity of the nervous system. In that case consciousness claims all the organism as its domain; and not only when the organism is entire does it refer any pain that arises to the region that is hurt, but after a limb has been amputated, and when it exists only as a phantom, consciousness still feels towards it as if it were still the old reality. Such is the effect of habit, or present assimilation to previous practice. Our cosmical law, the law of assimilation, must determine, if not the nature, at least the mode of action of this force--this self-manifesting power--for plainly this action must be assimilative. And that it is so, when giving rise to perception, is clearly and distinctly seen; for what is the perceiving of an object, but the mind, as a percipient, assimilating itself to that object? and what is the percept or remembrance of the object, which remains in the mind but the idea--that is, the assimilated symbol of the object, which, however, in consequence of the intrusion in the perception of the mind's own activity, and of other previously acquired ideas, as also the perceptive image is often very defective as a representation of the reality perceived? We may say that this self-manifesting power, which is thus the characteristic of all that exists, is the agency provided whereby the cosmical law of assimilation shall be realized, though the intimate nature of that agency remains, as now, wholly inscrutable. Nor can it be said to be physical until it is embodied in the ether. In that case, it is rhythmical, or undulatory, and formally representative of the object whence it emanates. But it is enough to know that the most intimate and ultimate property--the characteristic, in short, of that which exists--is self-manifesting power. Now, the existence of a self-manifesting power in an object implies that the object is itself a power or force, or an aggregate of such. This is enough for the purposes of philosophy and science, and we only deceive ourselves when we suppose that we can think of anything that exists and which is not at the same time a force or power....