The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-08

thing TO admit that the dull vital actions OF
their pTotoplasm, and are the direct resuIts of
the nature. of the matter Of which tney are
toyou, their protoplasm Is essentially ideniioal
with, and most readily converted into that OF
place between the admission that such is the
case and the further concession that ali vital
tSe MI or ths moIs paoprie.y De said TO be
plasm which displays ~. And II So IL must be
rue IN tns same sense and to the same ex-
ing utterancS, and your thoughts regarding
them, are The expression of molecular cnanges
In mat matter OF lie which is the source of our
other vital phenomena.
Past experience leads me to be tolerably Ger.
placed before You are accessiole To pnbS e5m ns.
ment an criticism, they will be condemned by
few Of the wise and tnough,ful / should not
wonder II gross and materialism" were the
ters. And most undoubtedly the terms OF the
propositions are distinctly materialistlc.
Nevertheless two things are certain: the one
true; the other, that i, individually, am no
materislist but, on the contrary, believe mate
rislism TO involve grave philosophical eSror.
What, he says further on
What Is the difference between the ooncep.
tion OF lie as the product of q certain dlsposi-
tion of material molecules and the old notion
of an Arch@us governing and directing blind
that here, as elsewhere, matter and law have
devoured spirit and spontaniety? Aud as surely
SO will The ply siolosy Of the future reg gradually
| extend the realm OF matter and law until 1t Is
| with action. The consciousness of this great
| truth weighs like nightmare believe, upon
| many of The best minds OF these days. Tney
watch what they conceive to be the progress of
materialism, in such fear and powerless anger
| as q savage feels, when, during an eclipse, the
The advsn cling tide Of matter threatens to drown
their souls; the tightening grasp, OF Law i'm:
pedes their freedom; they are alarmed lest
mans moral nature be debased by the Increase
| OF bis wisdom. But after all, what do
we know Of this terrible matter" except as q
name for the unknown and hypothetical cause
| Of states of our own consciousness? And what
do we know of that "spirit' over whose
| tation is arising, like that which was heard at
| the death of Pan, except that IT Is also name
condition, Of states Of coHsciousness2 mother
| words, matter and spirit are but names for the
imaginary substrata of groups Of natural
In itself 1t is of little moment whether we
| express the phenomena OF matter in terms OF
| spirit, or the phenomena of spirit in terms OF
| matter; matter may be regarded as a form OF
| thought, thought may be regarded as a property
of matter-each statement has a certain rela.
tive truth. But with a view to the progress OF
| science. the materialistic terminology is in
theusbs t With 10 the @ oher phenomena of the nGi.
| verse, and suggests inquiry into the nature OF
these physical conditions, or concomitants OF
| thought, whlcn al more or less accessible to
| us, and knowledge of which may, in future,
| help us to exercise the same kind of control
1
| in respect of the material world; whereas. the
| alternative, or spirltualistic, terminology is
| utterly barren, and leads to nothing but
| obseurity and confusion of ideas.
| Thus there can be little doubt that the further
| science advances the more extensively and
| consistently will the phenomena of nature be
| represented by materialistic formul@ and
| sy mbols.
But the man of science, who, forgetting the
| limits of philosophical inquiry, slides from
| these formule and symbols into what Is COM
monty understood by materialisnn, seems to
|
matician who should mistake The as and y's
| with which ne works his problems for real en-
| tittes-and with this further disadvantage, as
| compared with the mathematician, that The
| blunders of the latter are of no practical con-
| sequence, while the errors of systematic mate
| riaiism may paraly re the energies and destroy
| the beauty Of a life