A MODERN ''SYMPOSIUM:' 



505 



Whatever else they may be, the laws of morali- 

 ty, under their scientific aspect, are generalizations 

 based upon the observed phenomena of society; 

 and, whatever may be the nature of moral appro- 

 bation and disapprobation, these feelings are, as 

 a matter of experience, associated with certain 

 acts. 



The consequences of men's actions will re- 

 main the same, however far our analysis of the 

 causes which lead to them may be pushed ; theft 

 and murder would be none the less objectionable 

 if it were possible to prove that they were the 

 result of the activity of special theft and murder 

 cells in that " gray pulp " of which Mr. Harrison 

 speaks so scornfully. Does any sane man im- 

 agine that any quantity of physiological analysis 

 will lead people to think breaking their legs or 

 putting their hands into the fire desirable ? And 

 when men really believe that breaches of the 

 moral law involve their penalties as surely as do 

 breaches of the physical law, is it to be supposed 

 that even the very firmest disposal of their moral 

 truths upon "a bare physical or physiological 

 basis" will tempt them to incur those penalties? 



I would gladly learn from Mr. Harrison where, 

 in the course of his studies, he has found any- 

 thing inconsistent with what I have just said in 

 the writings of physicists or biologists. I would 

 entreat him to tell us who are the true material- 

 ists, " the scientific specialists " who " neglect all 

 philosophical and religious synthesis," and who 

 " submit religion to the test of the scalpel or the 

 electric battery ; " where the materialism which 

 is " marked by the ignoring of religion, the pass- 

 ing by on the other side and shutting the eyes to 

 the spiritual history of mankind," is to be fouud. 



I will not believe that these phrases are 

 meant to apply to any scientific men of whom I 

 have cognizance, or to any recognized system of 

 scientific thought — they would be too absurdly 

 inappropriate — and I cannot believe that Mr. 

 Harrison indulges in empty rhetoric. But I am 

 disposed to think that they would not have been 

 used at all, except for that deep-seated sympathy 

 with the " impatient theologian " which charac- 

 terizes the positivist school, and crops out, char- 

 acteristically enough, in more than one part of 

 Mr. Harrison's essay. 



Mr. Harrison tells us that "positivism is pre- 

 pared to meet the theologians." x I agree with 

 him, though not exactly in his sense of the words 

 — indeed, I have formerly expressed the opinion 

 that the meeting took place long ago, and that 

 the faithful lovers, impelled by the instinct of a 

 » P. 242. 



true affinity of nature, have met to part do more. 

 Ecclesiastical to the core from the beginning, 

 positivism is now exemplifying the law that the 

 outward garment adjusts itself, sooner or later, 

 to the inward man. From its founder onward, 

 stricken with metaphysical incompetence, and 

 equally incapable of appreciating the true spirit 

 of scientific method, it is now essaying to cover 

 the nakedness of its philosophical materialism 

 with the rags of a spiritualistic phraseology out 

 of which the original sense has wholly departed. 

 I understand and I respect the meaning of the 

 word "soul," as used by pagan and Christian 

 philosophers for what they believe to be the im- 

 perishable seat of human personality, bearing 

 throughout eternity its burden of woe, or its 

 capacity for adoration and love. I confess that 

 my dull moral sense does not enable me to see 

 anything base or selfish in the desire for a future 

 life among the spirits of the just made perfect ; 

 or even among a few such poor fallible souls as 

 one has known here below. 



And if I am not satisfied with the evidence 

 that is offered me that such a soul and such a 

 future life exist, I am content to take what is to 

 be had and to make the best of the brief span of 

 existence that is within my reach, without re- 

 viling those whose faith is more robust and whose 

 hopes are richer and fuller. But in the interests 

 of scientific clearness, I object to say that I have 

 a soul, when I mean, all the while, that my organ- 

 ism has certain mental functions which, like the 

 rest, are dependent upon its molecular composi- 

 tion, and come to an end when I die ; and I ob- 

 ject still more to affirm that I look to a future 

 life, when all that I mean is, that the influence of 

 my sayings and doings will be more or less felt 

 by a number of people after the physical compo- 

 nents of that organism are scattered to the four 

 winds. 



Throw a stone into the sea, and there is a 

 sense in which it is true that the wavelets which 

 spread around it have an effect through all space 

 and all time. Shall we say that the stone has a 

 future life ? 



It is not worth while to have broken away, 

 not without pain and grief, from beliefs which, 

 true or false, embody great and fruitful concep- 

 tions, to fall back into the arms of a half-breed 

 between science and theology, endowed, like 

 most half-breeds, with the faults of both parents 

 and the virtues of neither. And it is unwise by 

 such a lapse to expose one's self to the temptation 

 of holding with the hare and hunting with the 

 hounds — of using the weapons of one progenitor 



