The only workman of whom we know anything at all is the one that runs ourselves and even this is not perceivable by any of our gross palpable senses.
The senses seem to be the link between mind and matter—never forgetting that we can never have either mind or matter pure and without alloy of the other.
 Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912). copy citation

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Author Samuel Butler
Source The Note-Books of Samuel Butler
Topic mind link
Date 1912
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6173/6173-h/6173-h.htm

Context

“Man is a walking tool-box, manufactory, workshop and bazaar worked from behind the scenes by someone or something that we never see. We are so used to never seeing more than the tools, and these work so smoothly, that we call them the workman himself, making much the same mistake as though we should call the saw the carpenter. The only workman of whom we know anything at all is the one that runs ourselves and even this is not perceivable by any of our gross palpable senses. The senses seem to be the link between mind and matter—never forgetting that we can never have either mind or matter pure and without alloy of the other. Beer and My Cat Spilt beer or water seems sometimes almost human in its uncertainty whether or no it is worth while to get ever such a little nearer to the earth’s centre by such and such a slight trickle forward.” source