Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-04-06
BY DR.. MARTIN K.
SCHERMERHORN

believed that all plants are sensitive-thai
is, conscious. He employed a musician to
play to plants. And the plants figuratively
'clapped their hands and shouted for Joy
Well did the unknown, but so-called pagan
author of the famous 'Benedicity,- nov
found in the prayer books, say:
20, all ye green things, praise We LhG
Lord; praise him and magnify him Tor.
ever"
Recent experiments prove that many
species of animals are unsteady sensitive;
some of them even to an appreciation of
the masterpieces of Bach and Mozart in
preference to inferior compositions. To
quote further from the Benedcty.
20, all ye beasts ard cattle. praise We
the Lord; praise him and magnify him"
Who has not seen so-called inanimate
forms, from notes to mountains, dancing
to the music of the spheres:
20, all ye, valleys and trees and rocks,
and mountains. praise We the Lord; praise
him and magnify him forever
Nonsense" cries the materialist, "sensa-
ton, musical or otherwise, is nothing but
motion"
Motion? Then, pray, what is motion,
and whence? Does not consciousness pro
duce motion? Should you and become
conscious that this building is all afame,
would not there be plenty of motion2 The
old lady who sat out of doors and gamely
continued her knitting through the San
Francisco earthquake was wiser than you,
when she explained 20. am glad that l
have a God strong enough to shake the
earth"
In the chemical world the conforming
facts are equally innumerable In the mos
solid rock, or the most tenacious mass OF
metal, every atom moves rhythmically and
ceaselessly. That motion is consciousness.
1t knows where it belongs. keeps on its
course, and gets there; and getting where
it belongs, stays there
The nebular particle, from which the
earth and all planets and other systems
have, myriads of times, evolved though as
fine as a neurOn, or as hypothecated ether
from eternity has been, is, and to eternity
will be alive, with a wonderful life" as
says Lord Kelvin: Energy is energy; life
is life, no matter what its form; and all
life is conscious"
In light and heat is the molecular mo
ton of Life. Life becomes, first gaseous
then aqueous, and then solid, or in the
reverse order. Life becomes organic, ra.
tional, spiritual. The nucleus of every
crystal, of every concentrated mass, is az
truly an embryo as is the central germ OF
an apple seed, and the central germ of an
apple seed is as truly an embryo as the
foetus of a human being. Who any longer
denies consciousness to the human en-
bryo?
Every ego, or selfconsciousness, indt
vidual, like all individuals lower down
in evolution, is an aggregate, to date,
OF all conscious experiences in all stages
of development to date. Every ego is a
continuum, that is, a continuous and ever
increasing complex Of conscious expert
ence. "
The discontinuity Of consciousness, evN
and anon, is "punctuated" with periods
of rest or sleep, commonly called Death,
From these periods il Wakens reiuven-
ated and transformed. These periods,
called Death. are pathological states, called
unconsciousness. 1t is a period of 'au
revoir-auf wiedersehen." As the sun
sets and rises; as every form of life dis.
appears and Teappears, so Death, and all
temporary unconscious states are only pc
riods of rest and recuperation.
As to the possible evolution OF life from
chemical elements as some biologists now
predict. What we call the inanimate, or
dead, is really conscious life more or less
dormant. Conscious life resting; conscious
life latent, unaroused. Between the inert
and the active-the so-called inorganic and
the organic, the long-asserted impossible
gulf does not exist.
There is not even a fixed line OF devia-
ton; and the entire universe is now
found to be alive. Every particle that
fills space, as we'll as every aggregate
mass or bodily form is alive. And all that
lives Is conscious. To exist is to be con-
scious. Consciousness is the open answer
and universal condition of being. There
fore should the chemist out Of the chemi.
cal elements, actually produce everything
organic form, up TO man-up to Plato and
Emerson, he would still be doing only what
Nature has already always been doinA
evolving the less conscious and complex
into the more conscious and complex,
Whatever the method, agency or form OF
creation is or may be, it is all evolution OF
consciousness.