“Our consciousness of time,” replied Carmen, “is only our awareness of a continuous series of mental states.”
“That classifies it exactly,” said Hitt, “and renders it wholly mental. And now as to space,” he resumed. “We are accustomed to say, loosely, that space is that in which we see things about us. But in what does the process of seeing consist? I say, I see a chair. What I really mean is that I am conscious of a chair. The process of seeing, we are told, is this: light, coming from the chair, enters the eye and casts an image of the chair upon the retina, much as a picture is thrown upon the ground glass of a camera. Then, in some way, the little rods and cones––the branching tips of the optic nerve which project from the retina––are set in motion by the light-waves. This vibration is in some mysterious manner carried along the optic nerve to a center in the brain, and––well, then the mind becomes cognizant of the chair out there, that’s all.”
They sat silent for some moments. Then Miss Wall spoke. “Do you mean to say,” she queried, “that, after thousands of years of thought and investigation, mankind now know nothing more than that about the process of seeing?”
“I do,” returned Hitt. “I confess it in all humility.”
“Then all I’ve got to say,” put in Haynerd, “is that the most remarkable thing about you learned men is your ignorance!”
The doctor smiled. “I find it is only the fool who is cocksure,” he replied.
“Now,” said Hitt, resuming the conversation, “let us go a step further and inquire, first, What is light? since the process of seeing is absolutely dependent upon it.”
“Light,” offered the doctor, “is vibrations, or wave-motion, so physicists tell us.”
“Just so,” resumed Hitt. “Light, we say, consists of vibrations. Not vibrations of anything tangible or definitely material, 60 but––well, just vibrations in the abstract. It is vibratory or wave motion. Now let us concede that these vibrations in some way get to the brain center; and then let us ask, Is the mind there, in the brain, awaiting the arrival of these vibrations to inform it that there is a chair outside?”
Haynerd indulged in a cynical laugh.