54 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is mechanical, and that thought, as exercised 

 by us, has its correlative in the physics of 

 the brain, 1 think the position of the 'mate- 

 rialist ' is stated, as far as that position is a 

 tenable one. I think the materialist will be 

 able finally to maintain this position against 

 all attacks, but I do not think, in the pres- 

 ent condition of the human mind, that he 

 can pass beyond this position. I do' not 

 think he is entitled to say that his molecu- 

 lar groupings and his molecular motions ex- 

 plain every thing. In reality, they explain 

 nothing. The utmost he can affirm is the 

 association of two classes of phenomena, of 

 whose real bond of union he is in absolute 

 ignorance. The problem of the connection 

 of body and soul is as insoluble in its mod- 

 ern form as it was in the prescientific ages." 



And so it turns out that he who has 

 been buried under a mountain of exe- 

 cration for using science to drag the 

 world into the abyss of materialism, is 

 precisely the man who has demonstra- 

 ted that no possible extension of science 

 can ev.er lead one step toward that dread 

 abyss. He has taught us that if science 

 could attain perfection and predict the 

 movements of all the atoms of Nature 

 for thousands of years to come, as it 

 now predicts eclipses, it would not be 

 one whit nearer the solution or explana- 

 tion of the mystery of the relation of 

 mind and matter than it was in its in- 

 fancy. 



Referring to the admission in the 

 foregoing passage, that " we cannot see 

 any nexus between cerebral action and 

 thought, or discover why a movement 

 of the brain should lead to mental ex- 

 ercise," Dr. McCosh says, "But this 

 was never intended to mean much." 

 What right has Dr. McCosh to assume 

 that Prof. Tyndall means less or other 

 than what he says ? His words are cer- 

 tainly not obscure, and we think they 

 are weighty with meaning ; so weighty, 

 that it is only by an imputation of in- 

 sincerity or equivocation that their ef- 

 fect can be escaped. Had they been 

 generally heeded, or had Prof. Tyndall's 

 reviewers been candid enough to make 

 them widely known, we should have 

 heard a great deal less vituperation of 

 the Belfast address. 



SCIENCE AND SOCIAL REFORM. 



It is well known that the ground 

 taken in this periodical in regard to the 

 scope and influence of science is, that 

 both as a mental method, and by the 

 actual knowledge it furnishes, it is des- 

 tined in the future to exert a growing 

 and powerful control over public ques- 

 tions which have hitherto been but 

 little, if at all, affected by it. The 

 frantic efforts made by many to keep 

 science in its old physical grooves, and 

 prevent its " encroachments " upon de- 

 partments of thought thus far dealt with 

 by non-scientific methods, are doomed 

 to certain failure. An excellent exem- 

 plification of this tendency is now fur- 

 nished by the woman question. It has 

 latterly come into prominence in various 

 aspects as a practical reform, and the 

 most radical and momentous changes 

 are demanded, both in the view to be 

 taken of the feminine nature and ca- 

 pacities, and in the social and public 

 regulations to which women have been 

 amenable in the past. The promoters 

 of this alleged reform are generally phi- 

 lanthropists, sentimentalists, and politi- 

 cians, who, starting from existing and 

 acknowledged evils in society by which 

 women suffer, rush on to the advo- 

 cacy of sweeping changes, as if socie- 

 ty had but to swallow their panaceas, 

 and its evils would disappear. That 

 there is a scientific side of the subject? 

 of the greatest importance, these people 

 never seem, to suspect. It is observable 

 that into the literature of the niove- 

 ment science has, thus far, hardly in- 

 truded, and little disposition is evinced 

 to seek its assistance. We cannot, how- 

 ever, expect that people will be very 

 eager to turn their backs upon their 

 own methods of thought ; and our pro- 

 fessed reformers have their own well- 

 settled methods. In the present case, 

 certain political assumptions are made, 

 and certain beliefs postulated, regard- 

 ing feminine character, and from these 

 a reformatory policy is deduced and 



